Awakening
by Kaizer23
Summary: In a world that is only safe because those in the shadows work day and night to protect it, a young man finds himself questioning his own resolve. The reasons in why he continues onward despite the pain, has only become more vague as time passed on...
1. Normality

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii wake ga nai. Nor do I own any of the crossover characters that might pop up in this story. The only thing I do own, is the changes that I had made to the plot (which is this story).

This is a new story that I came up with that was inspired by 'My Life Can't Lost Its Normality!' by KSLCross. So don't be surprised if there are some similarities. Aside from that, I will be taking aspects from the light novel Hidan no Aria, To Aru Majutsu no Index and the Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii wake ga nai Visual Novel.

As I've stated with the above disclaimer, there might be crossover characters. These characters, will take the place of most Original Characters that I would place in the story. I'm doing this since I'm lazy on stating the physical description of each and every new character. But like I said, _most_. So don't be surprised if an Original Character does show up.

Now on to the story!

* * *

><p><strong>*Ring, Ring!*<strong>

An annoying ringing pierced the quiet environment of a certain sleeping boy.

Around the only bed located in the room, lay bandages, disinfectant, surgical scissors and various other items that are commonly found in a first-aid kit. By the look of things, it seemed to have been recently used.

On the desk, there was a cellphone that was currently showing a message that read:

_'Thanks for the great work! You've got the next few days as break unless an emergency comes up!'_

Eventually, a gloved hand, that had bandages from the wrist and seemingly extending towards the person's shoulder, poked out of the blanket and slammed down at the alarm clock by the bed side, shutting it off instantly.

After a moment, the blanket was kicked off revealing a young male with black hair and somewhat tired looking eyes. He was only wearing his pants as his chest was open for all to see which revealed that he also had a heavily bandaged chest.

The young male yawned as if his apparent injuries was nothing but a daily occurrence, which in hindsight, probably was.

The young male stood up and stretched his stiff limbs before packing the mess that lay by his bed side.

As he packed the remnants of his first aid kit, a knock alerted him to the presence of his mother.

"Kyousuke! Hurry up and have your breakfast or you'll be late!"

He didn't need to guess who would wake him up even if he didn't recognize the voice.

It's not that he was an only child nor did he only have a mother as a parent. He had a sister and a father after all. His father didn't look like the kind of person to wake him up every morning (he was a rather large man and looked like a stern policeman – which apparently is his job since he was head of the police in their area), and his sister apparently hated him.

"Yeah, I'll be down once I'm done getting ready!"

Kyousuke gave a sigh of relief as he felt the presence leave.

Putting on his school uniform and a jacket to hide the bandages that was wrapped on his right arm, he hid his first aid kit and his tattered clothing that he wore yesterday, and went down the stairs.

It would have been surprising to an outside observer how Kyousuke went about his morning as casual as possible. It would even seem like he didn't have injuries at all. But the fact is, he still has.

Some might think he has a high pain tolerance.

Which is undoubtedly true.

But the question remains: how did he get such a high pain tolerance?

"Kyousuke." Came the voice of his father as he made to place his finished plate to the sink, "When did you come back last night?"

If this conversation had happened a year ago, Kyousuke would have froze and have given himself away to his father.

"A little before midnight." Kyousuke replied calmly.

His father stared hard at his back to which he all took in stride.

"Don't stay outside too late." His father said once he was finally satisfied and went back to reading his newspaper.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah..."

* * *

><p>School had been rather torturous.<p>

For some reason, every single subject that he took during the day was all somehow related to people and their little sister. Often, those historic people or even present day people had good relations with their younger sisters. It was like life was mocking him for having a bad relationship with his little sister.

Something that, to say the least, he was envious off.

He never knew what made his sister drift away from him. As far as he could remember, his sister was the one that started to drift from him. During those days, he would often make a statement that would piss her off. He didn't know how to reply to that except get angry with her. He would often wonder if there was something missing or if he was doing something wrong, but whenever he did, he could never remember.

Despite this, he was quite peeved with his sister. She was an overachieving kind. High grades, athletic and had a great look that she even began modeling with her friends. It was due to this that his parents doted on her.

Oh, he could do better in school but he was far too busy putting his mind into his work. It was a matter of life and death after all.

When he had been questioned by his father this morning, it was the first time in ages that they took notice of what he did – thankfully, they were ignorant enough that they didn't question why he wore a jacket during the summer season. They usually ignored whatever he did which also allowed him a great amount of freedom.

Sighing, he silently berated himself for those kinds of thoughts. He should be grateful that they were ignoring him since it allowed him to do his _job_ with little chance of it being found out by his family.

"Kyou-chan!" His childhood friend walked over to him as class finally ended.

He usually likened his childhood friend to a grandmother that had been changed to be of his age, but lately he had become more appreciative of her understanding nature that he felt it would be insulting to compare her like that. She was more of a Yamato Nadeshiko now that he thought about it. In a sense, he was protective of her but not in the romantic kind (at least, that's what he thinks so). In his eyes, nobody is worthy for her.

"You got a new set of gloves, Kyou-chan?" His childhood friend observed, "Didn't you change it a week ago?"

Kyousuke, ever since the second to the last year of middle school, had always been wearing gloves. Not even his own family knew of the reason why he started wearing it, and even his own childhood friend didn't know of the reason. But she took it in stride and accepted whatever the true reason he kept wearing such gloves.

"Yeah, the last set didn't last long. It may have been a defective product." Kyousuke replied once he finished packing his things into his bag.

To be truthful, not even Kyousuke knew why he started wearing gloves. Whenever he went out in public without one, he always had the urge to clean his hands and it always became more prevalent when he was in the presence of his family and his childhood friend. It had gotten so bad, that he always wore gloves when in his normal everyday life.

"Ready to go, Manami?"

His childhood friend smiled and followed him on the way out of the school.

In a way, Kyousuke envied the life that Manami had. As he stated before, if there was a contest on who is the most normal, then Manami would win it hands down.

Normality is something he yearns for, but he knew that it was an impossibility for a person like him.

He didn't regret it though.

It was his choice in the first place. Even if presented with the same choice once again, he would have, without hesitation, chosen this life again.

The only thing he could really bask in, is the normality of life outside of the _things_ that he constantly finds himself in. This normal everyday life is his escape from the harsh reality, and his reprieve.

It was for that reason he wouldn't regret; Only looking forward.

"You look pretty stiff Kyou-chan, are you okay?"

As expected from his childhood friend.

"Just a lot of stress recently."

Eventually they came to a crossroad.

"See you tomorrow, Kyou-chan!"

"Yeah, see you."

* * *

><p>Kyousuke opened the front door of his house.<p>

If it were at any time during the day (except the times he went out for one of _those _jobs), he would have said 'I'm home' to announce his presence to everyone in the house. At this time however, no one would reply even if he did say it.

His father was still at work and his mother was probably out to do some errands. His sister however, was probably home judging by the shoes at the door.

While there was someone that was indeed home, he doubted his sister would take notice of his presence anyway.

He first dropped of his stuff by his room before heading to the kitchen to get a drink.

As he entered the kitchen, he noticed his sister was on the phone.

While many would call her cute, beautiful even, he would never really admit it – since her attitude towards him completely ruined it. Which was why he usually ignored her, to which she would do the same.

Stopping for a moment, he looked at her and attempted to start a conversation of some kind.

"I'm home."

While he was pretty sure he would never be able to restore the kind of relationship they had on their youth, he always hoped he'd be able to close the gap between it somehow.

Kirino, his sister, merely glanced at him with a blank look before returning to her phone conversation.

He sighed.

At least he tried, right?

Walking over to the fridge, he picked up a carton of iced tea and poured himself a glass.

It wasn't anything special, but it was certainly better than drinking just water.

Placing the glass by the sink, he headed towards his room once again. With what he went through last night, he wanted a good long rest.

As he walked up the stairs, he remembered that he hadn't placed the carton of iced tea back into the fridge.

Those kinds of drinks already have a short expiration date, and by not placing it back he would be certainly wasting a good drink.

"Troublesome..."

Spinning on his heels, he headed down the stars towards the kitchen.

At the same time however, the door had opened as Kirino stepped out with her purse.

Under any normal circumstances, Kyousuke would have been able to avoid the incoming impact, but with the way his body had been and how he had been resisting the urge to wince or at least to show he was injured had taken a toll in how his body reacted.

The end result being, that he accidentally collided with his sister making her drop the contents of her purse on the floor, and her landing on her bum. Thankfully, he still had enough reflex to prevent himself from doing the same.

"Sorry."

Kyousuke mouthed out, but Kirino seemed to be more focus on picking up her things.

Seeing that it was partially his fault, he decided to help her out.

His hand however was coldly slapped away, despite his good intentions.

"Don't touch it!"

Such a cold action would normally cause an appropriate reaction. Kyousuke however, only narrowed his eyes and stood quiet.

As soon as she left, Kyousuke noticed something underneath the shoe rack.

Picking it up, it seemed to be an anime DVD case.

"Stardust Witch Meruru?"

He had heard of the ongoing anime from one of his coworkers... but how did it end up here? It was forbidden for coworkers to enter or be in the vicinity of another worker's home unless they had stated it to the worker that lived there beforehand. So, as far as he knew, that coworker of his wouldn't have been able to step into his home (and even if they did infiltrate, he would have known).

Before he could think more on the subject, he heard footsteps approaching the door.

Thinking quickly, he jumped up the stairs and managed to reach the second floor in two bounds.

"I'm home!"

It was his mother.

"Welcome home, mother."

Kyousuke replied from the stairs before heading towards his room.

He gave a sigh of relief and took of his jacket before sitting down on his bed to figure out how the DVD case ended up in his home.

The possibility of it being a coworker was already crossed out. So that only left his family members.

For a moment he thought about who in his family could possibly own it. But judging by his limited knowledge of his family, none of them seemed to fit.

Opening the case, instead of finding a DVD of Stardust Witch Meruru, it was a DVD of an R-18 Limited Edition of 'Make Love with Little Sister!'. It was an eroge, no doubt.

Momentarily his brain halted all functions.

"Stardust...Little Sister... Witch... Make Love with... Meruru... R-18..."

A chuckle escaped from his throat before it became louder and louder, until it reached a large throaty laugh that wouldn't be out of place from his line of work.

As soon as he got himself under control and assured his mother that he was fine (without opening the door of course), he finally analyzed the situation before him.

He could just picture the reaction of his family (with his limited knowledge) once they find out about the existence of the DVD case currently under his possession.

"_Kyousuke, isn't the dirty magazines under your bed not enough?" _- His mother

"_You're kidding me. That's seriously gross."_ - His sister.

"_Die."_ - His father.

It was of no question what would happen if this was found under his possession.

The hair behind his neck prickled and sounds of footsteps approaching his door entered his ear.

Quickly hiding the DVD case under his blanket and placing on his jacket, the door opened as his mother came in.

"Kyousuke, are you study- Are you going somewhere?" His mother noted as it Kyousuke was caught on putting on his jacket on (which thankfully, his bandaged arm was already hidden).

"Ah, no I was just..." Kyousuke looked around his room before noticing a ball of yarn under his bed. He kicked it out into the open, "I was just testing if my modification on this jacket is alright!"

His mother gave him a once over, "I didn't know you were good at sewing."

"Eh, he, he... It's something you pick up when you're obsessed with gloves like I am." Kyousuke answered a bit nervously.

"Well, okay then. Just make sure you study, okay?" His mother soon left the room.

Kyousuke removed his jacket and placed the yarn ball under the bed.

He would have locked the door if it wouldn't seem so suspicious. Last night he had to lock it since he would probably knocked out in the following morning that might result in himself being discovered.

Kyousuke took out the DVD case from his blanket.

He would definitely find out who owned this!

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes:<strong>

This will be updated irregularly. I'm not even sure if this will actually be finished since I started this on a whim. As it stands, my other story 'Infinite Stratos: Sacred World' takes priority over this one.

In the future, if there's any crossover character that will pop up in the story, it will be placed down here where I will state where the character comes from.

Pairings are also undecided (but will never be Yaoi/Slash or Yuri).

Place a review and tell me what you think.


	2. First Life Counseling

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii wake ga nai or any of the related works and characters. I also do not own the crossover characters that might pop up in this story. The only thing I do own, is this story and how I interpret certain crossover characters.

* * *

><p>Mysteries was something that Kyousuke couldn't quite stand.<p>

It was one of the many reasons he would never watch mystery shows since he'd have to wait another week for the next episode to find out what was the mystery, sometimes, not even the next episode would have it. Reading mystery books he was fine with. After all, he could find the answer to the mystery by just looking at the last two chapters (of course if the story was multi-installation then it would be like mystery TV shows, only worse.

He supposed it was because solving mysteries were part of his work. But if people knew that, they'd probably ask why he still hated it in today's entertainment if he could possibly solve it himself. He would of course reply: nothing is really that simple.

So it was for that reason why he spent most of the afternoon before dinner finding more about who could possibly be the owner of the DVD case that he had found instead of sleeping. He wouldn't be able to sleep without solving the mystery anyway.

Oh, his family kept secrets alright. But that didn't mean he would go out of his way to find what the secret was after all, everyone has their secrets. But that DVD case was a true anomaly that he had no idea as to where it came from. That, and he was interested on who possibly could own it within his family. After all, no matter how he looked at it, whoever owned this DVD case would be a real eye opener as to what the person really was like.

Despite the fact that the possible suspects that could possibly own the DVD case was his family, he didn't really know much about them to definitively guess who owned it. He could barely remember how things were in his childhood (which he accounted to his work since life or death situation tends to be more easily memorable), but he knew them well enough to live with them as a reclusive member of the family.

It was about dinner time Kyousuke finally went down from his room. He was currently wearing a long sleeve t-shirt and simple shorts.

Upon further investigation, the owner of the game and the DVD case were the same person. And if he had to hazard a guess, the owner would undoubtedly be female (based on what he could detect alone). So that obviously ruled out his father (he secretly wished it was his father's but he would never admit it).

As he went down, he noticed Kirino looking blankly at the door that leads outside.

He paused before entering the kitchen.

"What are you doing?"

"Huh?" Kirino looked at him in shock before returning to her usual expression, "It has nothing to do with you."

Kyousuke merely clicked his tongue at being brushed off.

"Is that so?"

He entered the kitchen without another word.

* * *

><p>The family silently ate their curry while the TV was on and was currently showing some recent events.<p>

"A local factory that produces numerous metal wares in northern Hokkaido was raided by an unknown group and had destroyed all of its facilities last night through explosions. The owner of the factory refused to make a comment on who the perpetrators are, but has given the indication that this was to be an expected attack.

Luckily, no one was killed by the explosion but the majority of the security guards were either injured or killed by the perpetrators of the explosion."

The rest of the news was tuned out as Kyousuke finished his food. He didn't care much about the news and only listened to the ones that could possibly affect him. After that first news report, he deemed that there's nothing else to pay attention to.

Once he was nearing the last few bites of his curry, Kyousuke decided to make his move.

"I'm going to the convenience store later... do you guys want anything?" He said casually as he took the last few bites from his curry.

"Oh, I would want a new flavor of that Ice Cream brand." His mother said.

Kyousuke paused for a moment, before delivering the finishing blow.

"Oh yeah, a friend of mine got really into this anime aimed at young girls recently. Stardust or something..."

"What are you talking about?" His mother asked genuinely confused.

"Well it sounded interesting and so I thought I might try it."

"Isn't that the what those 'otaku' people watch? They talk about them on TV sometimes. Don't become like them, right Dad?"

"Right. Don't go polluting your mind with that filth."

Kyousuke was no longer listening as he already pinpointed who the culprit was.

Glancing at his side, he noticed that his sister had frozen and was shaking on her seat.

His mother apparently noticed, "What's wrong, Kirino?"

"Eh?" She immediately stood up and began to pack her barely eaten dinner, "Thanks for the food!"

If it was suspicious, his parents didn't show it.

But that was all the confirmation that Kyousuke needed.

After finishing his dinner, Kyousuke headed towards his room to prepare to go towards the store.

Announcing loudly that he was heading towards the store he didn't make it a few meters outside of the house when the lights within his room lit up.

_'Got you...'_

Silently making it back to the second floor, that not even his parents knew he entered the house once again, he opened his door to find that Kirino was searching under his bed.

"What are you doing?"

His voice made her jerk before she stood up.

"Who cares what I'm doing?"

"I do! This is my room!"

Kyousuke had half the mind to finally reprimand her as his older brother but decided against it as she walked towards him.

"Move."

She uttered as Kyousuke remained in front of the door.

"Answer my question."

"Move!"

The way she had said it made Kyousuke flinch. There was that same coldness on her voice that made it seem like she wasn't at all talking to someone in her family. It was as if she was talking to a complete stranger or someone she completely hated.

Despite this, Kyousuke did not move. Instead, he took out the DVD case that he supposed she was looking for from his jacket.

"This is what you're looking for, right?"

Once Kirino finally recognized the DVD case, she jumped at the chance to get it, but Kyousuke moved it out of her reach each time she tried to reach for it.

"So it is yours!"

"Haa? What are you talking about? There's no way I'd watch an anime like that!"

"Your actions don't match your words!"

It was at this point that Kirino stopped. She grit her teeth and looked at the floor.

_'Ugh... this kind of exertion would be felt tomorrow...'_

Kyousuke thought, but decided to focus on the matter at hand.

"If you weren't looking for this, what were you doing in my room?"

"I was...!"

Her fist clenched, shaking.

"I was..."

She looked up towards Kyousuke and looked at him straight at the eyes. No doubt, making sure he wouldn't see her weak.

Kyousuke sighed internally. With the way things were going, it seemed like he was the one bullying her. If this kept up, the wedge between their relationship would only grow and he'd know this time that it was completely his fault.

"Here, take it." Kyousuke said as he shoved the DVD case towards Kirino.

"I said it's not-"

"Then throw it away from me." Kyousuke cut her off knowing what was actually in her mind as he made his way towards his bed.

"Huh?"

"Sorry, I guess I misunderstood."

He knew that Kirino was probably into that stuff and only her innate stubbornness prevented her from admitting a weird hobby in front of anyone. So if she wasn't ready to admit it to him, then he'd just pass this incident as his own misunderstanding.

"It's not yours then. I don't want to carry it around though, so throw it away for me please."

Kyousuke glanced over at Kirino who had a surprised expression.

Once she noticed it, she looked away and muttered in a quiet voice, "F-fine..." She turned around towards the door but instead of opening it, she paused, "Do you think it's weird?"

"Huh?"

"I said, i-if this were actually mine, would you think that's weird?"

"Why would I think it's weird?"

Kyousuke didn't even need to think about his reply. It didn't matter what a person's hobby was so long as it continued to entertain them and it didn't ruin anyone's lives. If Kirino did indeed love that anime and that R-18 game, then who was he to judge? She's still a model, a top student and part of the track team. Her hobby didn't affect her daily life negatively so there was no need to think of it as bad. Heck, in his line of work, he's seen even weirder hobbies.

"Really?"

"Yeah. It doesn't matter what kind of hobbies you have, I won't make fun of you."

That was his honest reply. She could be a_ fujoshi_ for all he cared, and he'd still won't make fun of her. If she was however, he hoped that she wouldn't push him to those kind of situations...

"I see."

Kirino finally left the room after that.

"Now then," Kyousuke stood up from the bed, "Time to get that Ice Cream mother wanted..."

* * *

><p>It was around 12:50 that Kyousuke woke up from his sleep.<p>

He had come back from the convenience store at around 8:50 and after that immediately headed to bed. So waking up at this time didn't mean that he had enough sleep.

Kyousuke silently reached to the side of his pillow, and let his hand linger there.

There was someone awake stalking by the hallway in front of his room.

If it was his parents, there would be light emitting from the crevices of the door. But it was still dark.

It was a moment later when the door slowly opened and his sister entered his room.

"What are you doing?"

This made Kirino jump and nearly scream since she clearly hadn't been expecting him to be awake.

"Wh-why aren't you asleep!"

"I should be the one asking you that question. Well? What do you want?" Kyousuke glanced at the watch. It was 1:00 now.

"I – I need to talk to you. Come to my room."

"Can't this wait till tomorrow?"

"No."

This was probably the first time that he had entered Kirino's room since elementary. The amount of things that were all over the room made his room pale in comparison.

The general color was pink (which wasn't actually that hard to guess) and there were numerous items such as a laptop, computer, pictures, pillows and so on and so forth. If one was to compare this to Kyousuke's room, they would wonder where he was spending his share of the allowance or if model's really made that much money to completely leave him behind despite having lived longer than his sister.

Oh, Kyousuke did have money. Just that he couldn't be bothered to buy anything with how busy he was and the raised eyebrows it would cause as people wondered where he got such money. Nobody knew of his job after all.

"Don't stare at everything."

"I'm not!" Kyousuke immediately regained his composure, "What did you want to talk about?"

She took a sigh as if asking herself one more time if she wanted to go through with it.

"Hurry up or I'm out of here."

This shook her out of her reverie and made her turn around to face him.

"You said earlier... Even if I had stuff like that, you wouldn't make fun of me." Kirino said, looking a bit tame when compared to her usual attitude. It was certainly odd seeing her like that.

"Huh? Yeah..."

"Like, really, really? Absolutely?"

"Once is enough. I won't." Kyousuke replied tiredly.

Despite the bright light and color, he was still fighting a losing battle of staying awake.

"If you're lying, I'll kill you."

_'She'll kill me?'_

He doubt that she could, but the fact that she stated it without a hint of a joke, made him pay more attention to what she's trying to get at.

"Uh..?"

"-eling."

"What? I didn't hear that."

She hesitated for a moment.

"I want some life counseling!"

"Life counseling?" This knocked off the feeling of sleepiness from him, "You? From me?"

As if she didn't hear him, he walked over by his side and started to move away a rather empty looking cabinet. Behind it was a closet.

"You have a closet?"

"This room was originally Japanese-style. So this might have been a leftover from the remodeling. So I turned it into this."

With that, she slammed open the cabinet.

If the life counseling thing hadn't woke him up, then this revelation kicked the sleepiness out of his head and shot it so thoroughly that even if it had freakish regeneration it wouldn't be coming back for quite a while.

Inside the cabinet lay tons of what seemed like anime collectibles (the majority of which were from the anime Stardust Witch Meruru) and various DVD cases that filled the whole cabinet.

Sure he had suspected that his sister liked to play weird games that were directed to male adults. Sure he had suspected that his sister liked an anime targeted towards young girls. But he never truly had an idea on how much of a fan she was.

"Y – You..."

So it was no surprise that Kyousuke temporarily lost his ability to form coherent sentences.

A box fell to the floor from the hidden closet, to which he picked up.

The box was probably the true casing of the DVD he found in the DVD case hours ago.

"Wh-what's this?"

"Ah, that's the PC version." Kirino replied as if it was completely normal, before continuing in a happy note. "It originally came out on PS2, but it turned into a completely different series after the port. It's a masterpiece, but it's a bit hard, so I wouldn't recommend it to an amateur."

_'Amateur?'_

It was at this point that Kyousuke realized how much he underestimated how obsessed Kirino was or how focused she was on her hobby. The fact that she could distinguish between professional and amateur was already a clear indication.

_'Wait a minute... I didn't ask anything about that!'_

Kirino continued to talk happily about her hobby while Kyousuke could only look in mild surprise. She was just far too happy that he didn't want to disturb her talk about her hobby with such a passion he had rarely ever seen.

Eventually she took out a box from her closet. In it, was even more games and anime that truly cemented to him how obsessed his sister was with it.

If the games in the box when stacked together was even taller than Kirino and those that couldn't be placed there, was stacked horizontally in the floor, was anything to go by.

"Are these all PC games?"

One thing he noticed as a prevalent theme within most of the game titles that Kirino had said when stacking it up, was that it was the main character falling in love with their little sister. He didn't know what to make of this so he decided to ask that later on.

"Why are all these boxes so big?"

She continued to explain happily about the games to which Kyousuke was quite at a loss at.

Sure he had watched and even participated in some anime events but was nowhere near as much as an otaku as his sister. He was already lost on most of the things she was talking about and could only nod and keep a poker face to not reveal just how surprised he was at this.

One thing that he could discern from her collection, was that it must have been extremely expensive.

He would have questioned where she got the money, but he knew that she worked as a model. He had no particular idea as to how much she got paid but if she managed to buy her own computer and a laptop, then it must have been pretty high.

"So?"

The sudden question made shook him back into reality.

"What do you mean by 'so'?"

"What do you think..." She paused and closed her eyes as if ashamed, "...about my hobby."

He didn't know what she was trying to do, but if this was a secret that she had kept for so long and had only told him, then maybe she was seeking approval. Even though it might be shallow of him, he felt a bit happy that his sister could finally entrust something to him.

"I'm surprised."

That was clearly an understatement, but he didn't want to say anything too insulting.

"Anything, else?"

Kyousuke could only look away. What else could he say at a time like this?

Seeing him hesitate, Kirino collapsed to the floor.

"Is it really weird for me to have things like this?" She looked so vulnerable at this point. She looked lost that it was a real contrast to her usual confident attitude.

It was rare seeing her like this, but there's one thing that Kyousuke could tell at this point: he didn't like it. So he decided to placate her.

"It's true that it's unexpected and I was – no, clearly surprised at the true extent of your hobby. But you're buying it with your own money. What you buy is your choice."

"Really?" Kirino brightened at his words.

This made Kyousuke look elsewhere, unused to seeing his sister happy due to something he had said.

"Yeah. You don't have to care what people thinks. It's your hobby and its what makes you, you. Your happy because of it and it doesn't affect anyone's lives – including your own – negatively. I'm just really surprised. I'm really not making fun out of you."

Who was he to judge another person? With his lack of understanding in his sister's welfare and thoughts, he would be the least qualified person to judge her.

"I see. You're right." She finally had a full blown smile directed at him, "You say good stuff sometimes!"

Kyousuke decided to finally bring out the topic that had been addressing him.

"Anyway, why are all these eroge the little sister love type?"

"Why do you think?" She asked quietly.

"No clue." He answered truthfully.

Kirino suddenly began to crawl towards him with a blank expression as Kyousuke slowly backed onto the wall.

"Why are you backing away?"

"Uhh.. well, you..." He didn't actually have any idea why he was backing off. His mind was blank at the current development. His body was only moving at an instinctual level which only said 'back off'.

Before she could go any closer, she brought out the first box that Kyousuke had picked up a while ago.

"When you look at this package, don't you think it might be good?" She said happily as she clutched at the box.

Kyousuke was taken aback by the sudden change of mood but accepted it nonetheless.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"Look at it! Isn't it really - , really cute?"

"In other words, you have all those games... because you like little sisters?"

"Yeah! Little sisters are just so cute! Like in these galge, they call you 'Onii-chan' or 'Aniki' or 'Nii-Nii' or 'Nii-chama'! They all love me and have their own names for me! It just makes me go crazy!"

Seeing how happy she was, somewhat released the breath he didn't know he was holding.

"I-I see. That's nice..."

One thing that Kyousuke can admit, was that he had never been called anything like that (or at least, as far as he could remember). It would be nice if his sister called him once like that, but then again... he might just get irritated.

"In this one, I love this girl." Kirino said pointing at one of the characters in the box, "Little sisters must have black hair and twintails! They look so pure, you just want to protect them, or hold them tight! They're so lovely..."

Kyousuke decided to keep to himself how she's practically the polar opposite of what she likes about younger sisters.

"Anyway, isn't that targeted to male adults? Why do you like them so much?"

While he understood why she likes anime, particularly Stardust Witch Meruru, but eroge targeted towards male adults? She was clearly female, but what did she see in it that made her like it so much? That even she knew that such a hobby, when found out, would give people the wrong impression of her?

"I – I don't know..." The same lost expression from before returned.

"You don't know, huh?" Kyousuke muttered as a memory momentarily flashed before his eyes until it was erased from his mind when Kirino spoke up again.

"I don't know! I just... I just can't help it." She said looking down, "I fell in love with them before I knew it. Even I know that this isn't a hobby normal girls have. That's why I've been hiding it all this time! But I really love them. I Google them and try out the demos and before I know it, I just have to buy them!"

She paused and looked towards her collection.

"No matter how many times I try to stop, this cuteness just drives me crazy again! Every site keeps announcing new information every day and makes me want to buy them. It's all KarzuSP and AkibaBlog's fault!"

Kyousuke sighed and rubbed his head, unsure of what to do.

"What do you think I should do? Maybe I should tell mom and dad-"

"Don't!" Kyousuke bursted out, before realizing he said it too loud.

The two paused for a moment and looked outside if their parents stirred. Seeing no sign, they closed the door once again.

"I don't even have to tell you what would happen if Dad ever finds out." Kyousuke continued in a more quieter note.

"I - I see." Kirino said, looking a bit crestfallen.

Kyousuke closed his eyes before coming unto a decision.

"I get it. I'll help you out. I'll make sure no one finds out about your hobby or make anyone stop you. I'm not sure the full extent of what I can do, but I'll do what I can."

"You will?" Kirino looked up, a shimmer of hope within her eyes.

Even if Kyousuke was lying, he would be hard pressed to say no to those eyes, "Sure. If you need anything, just ask. I'll do what I can."

"R-really?" Kirino glanced away before looking at him straight in the eyes, "Then I guess I will... it might be a real help if you did."

Seeing her like this, Kyousuke gave a small smile. It was a small step towards repairing their relationship as brother and sister, but it was a step nonetheless. Though he wasn't naive enough to think that things would change right away. He'd have to build upon this small success in repairing their broken relationship as brother and sisters.

"Alright then, I'm going to bed."

Without another word, Kyousuke headed to his bed and turned off the lights.

Little did he know he would regret the words he had uttered to his sister moments ago.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes:<strong>

Alright, I'll address some of the reviews...

About this being a dark fiction... I'm not sure if this story will turn out dark, but it certainly won't always be happy.

Pairings are still undecided, but I've already got one suggestion. Despite this, I may not actually go full out in a pairing rather, I might just do various ship teases. But it all depends on how this story proceeds. Even I'm not sure where this will go.

Oh, and Kyousuke's job won't be revealed until much later. I'm first focusing in the normal daily life before I plunge you guys to the more original bulk of this story. That said, there's not much changes _yet_ but once the plot gets moving, certain scenes from the anime/light novel would be changed completely, while at some points, new things will be added. Only time will tell how this will all go.

I'm also attempting to keep the minimum words per chapter 3000 and the maximum 6000. This is due to the fact that this isn't a regularly updating story as I may update this month, but I may not update the following (this is a monthly update, mind you).

Well, that's it for now. Place a review and tell me what you guys think.


	3. Dullness

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai or any of the other works to which I will place as crossover elements at some point in the future.

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><p>Kirino and Kyousuke's relationship hadn't changed much.<p>

Aside from the life counseling session they had a few nights back, Kirino hadn't talked to him at all. It was to be expected since he couldn't expect their relationship to change so quickly after one night alone. Although he hoped that some sort of connection was made, but it seemed like it would be a while before he could see the fruits of his labor.

"You've been looking dull recently, Kyou-chan." Manami commented as she approached his desk.

School had just ended and Kyousuke was lazily packing his books into his bag.

"I've always been dull."

He hated to admit it, but outside of his work, he was a pretty dull person. His own room is a testament to how dull he was. Then again, he always felt too lazy to actually put any effort in anything aside from his work...

"That's for sure," Kyousuke internally winced at the confirmation of his thoughts. It was one thing to admit it, it was another for someone to agree with it. "But I'm comparing you to the usual, Kyou-chan."

Kyousuke's wounds had healed quite well. He was a fast healer and injuries that he had received a few days ago was pretty minor when compared to the other major incidents he had got himself caught into. But after every time he had recovered from some sort of injury, he would feel a wave of tiredness that it commonly affected his school life.

But with what had happened recently with his sister, it had stressed him out and had allowed his tiredness (or in this case, dullness) to finally become noticeable to his childhood friend. Everyone else would probably not have notice it at all.

He found it odd that he was more stressed now, when compared to the after effects of a life threatening mission.

"Just some things happening." He replied vaguely as he stood up. "Anyway, let's head home."

"Yes!"

His childhood friend had always been there for him. She had been his childhood friend and had been his childhood friend now. They still held the same relationship as they had back then despite his, at best, foggy memories. She also served as a pseudo-tutor for him since he tended to be completely caught up at the incidents he gets himself in, in his work.

"So, what happened?" Manami asked as they finally stepped out of the school premises.

"What do you mean?"

"Like I said before, I'd be happy if you told me the reason why you've been so tired recently."

Manami had always been the one that had the ability to tell apart his current states that no other could come close in comparison. Kyousuke would sometimes admit that she can read his own state better than his own.

The fact that she's asking now despite the fact that Kyousuke usually would jump around the subject would mean that he looked a lot more tired than usual.

"The reason why I've been dull lately, huh?" Kyousuke made a gesture that looked like he was thinking hard on it before he returned to his usual dull expression, "It has nothing to do with you, so you shouldn't worry about it."

Manami looked at Kyousuke suspiciously.

"Does this have something to do with _that_?"

Due to Manami's great perception regarding his state of mind and body (she did know him better than anyone else – bar himself), she had known that Kyousuke participated in _something_. Even with constant badgering, she could never find out what exactly that _something_ is. So she eventually stopped asking whenever its related to that something. Anything else however, is fair game.

"...sort of."

Kyousuke dearly hoped that she wouldn't notice his slip. He could never quite lie to her when she's in this state.

"Well, then!" She said with a bright smile, "Tell me everything not related to that _something_!"

Kyousuke resisted the urge to facepalm.

"You just can't leave others alone can you?"

For some reason she smiled more brightly and giggled at that observation.

Seeing this, Kyousuke decided to give up the futile attempt at keeping from her what was bothering him recently.

"Your little sister?"

Kyousuke nodded while he continued to walk in the same pace.

"What's the matter with your little sister?"

"She... she asked me for life counseling."

Manami didn't need to know what exactly his sister's secret is. After all, he promised to keep it a secret.

"Asking for life counseling... from you?" She asked in disbelief.

"Is it really that unbelievable?"

At least Manami had the decency to look embarrassed at what she had just said.

"Though she said it was counseling, it was just some circumstances that made me listen to her talk."

Kyousuke paused for a moment, only the sounds of the passing wind and their footsteps making sounds as they walked onwards.

"...she seems so troubled about it, but I can't do anything about it so I leaver her alone."

"I see..."

Manami placed her index finger on her lip as she looked up. A few moments later, she let out a giggle.

"Kyou-chan is so kind."

"...what gave you that idea?"

Such a bold statement made him embarrassed, so he looked away to hide it. Although his response had already given him away.

"You don't seem to be able to do anything, yet you want to do something for her, right?"

"..."

That was all the answer she needed.

Eventually they reached the crossroad to which Manami would normally head the other way while he would head another way.

"By the way, Kyou-chan. How are your studies going?"

"Not so well." Kyousuke admitted, "I've been too busy lately."

For some reason the incidents have been slowly picking up speed. Just this year alone, he had already took double the amount of work than any other years before (except his first year, although his memories of that time was extremely vague).

He was fairly smart on his own right (which was a given, due to the nature of his work and abilities). The fact that he was still passing despite all the stress that he got himself into (which would send a lesser man failing their school work or giving up altogether), was already pretty commendable. He would have been fine if the majority of his work was in-class things like test and essays but anything that involved homework or projects continued to escape him. As it stands, he either turn up to school half dead with all his homework finished (which of course would make his school and parents worry) or he can turn up presentable to the casual observer but miss most of his homework.

He could obviously allow the organization he was part of to pull some strings, but it can only go so far that people would start noticing. So he'd rather get the barest minimum so that no one, not even his father would realize something was happening behind the scenes.

Despite this, he wasn't all too worried about his school life. His work had already given him a college degree in Forensics and the like (they were all legal albeit, the way it was obtained was so roundabout and some of the channels too hidden, that people might think it was illegal) but he couldn't really give an explanation as to how he got that college degree without revealing his line of work.

So in order to further his cover as an average high school student, he had to get another degree through common routes (i.e. Actually going to some sort of public [as in, not hidden or secret] school and graduating). It would only be then that he would be allowed to use his other degrees.

The problem however, is _if_ he can even pass his current school work.

"It's because you always miss on doing your homework." She lightly scolded, "If that's the case, then let me help you."

Despite how she looks, she's actually pretty smart. In fact, she's the only reason that he's doing so well since she always assisted him on finishing his school work and projects.

"That would be a great help! I just can't seem to get myself to do my homework when I'm all alone."

"Let me guess, you've been using your time at home to sleep?"

"Are you some sort of esper or something?"

She saw right through him. But even then she was still smiling.

Studies and entrance exams were the usual subject that students in high school talked about. Since he had no need to worry about the kind of school he needed to go (no doubt his sister would take some high profile college and completely outshine him anyway – that and he wasn't really allowed to get too much attention in public as it might threaten his cover), he just opted to go where Manami was planning to go to which was a local university.

"Okay, let's meet up at my house and then head over to the library. Oh, and a new flavor is out. Would you like to try it too?"

"Hm? That would be most helpful."

Manami's family ran a Japanese sweets shop. So whenever a new flavor came out, Manami would always give him a sample taste.

Whenever he tasted one, he would always feel a sense of nostalgia that he couldn't really quite place. So he always accepted her offer whenever she'd give her a sample.

"Sure. I don't think I can help with your sister's life counseling, so I'll be nice to Kyou-chan instead."

"You're too nice." Kyousuke said fondly.

Manami took this as high praise since she began swinging her bag in front of her. This would normally convey nothing to a person that didn't have the same bond as he did with Manami, but for him, it was a lot like a dog eagerly swinging their tail. This action meant, in words, 'praise me more'.

"You would make a good wife someday." He turned around not looking at Manami as she glowed a bright red at his praise.

Once Kyousuke was going to turn right, he noticed his sister and her friends coming.

If one compares Kyousuke and Manami to Kirino and her friends, it would seem like an imaginary spotlight would shine on them as Kyousuke and Manami's presence seemed to be magnifying their presence.

Manami watched the girl's pass by with admiration.

"Those were really cute girls. It must be nice to be young."

With those kind of comments, it wasn't a surprise that Kyousuke normally thought of Manami as a grandmother suddenly turned young.

"Granny, remember you're a high school girl. You've been forgetting too many things recently." Kyousuke teased.

"I know, Grandpa." Manami countered, "But even when I was in middle school I wasn't as shiny like them. They're still kids... yet they are much more mature than me. Maybe I should work harder."

"You're fine the way you are Manami." Kyousuke said stiffly.

Left unsaid was the fact that if Manami became like them, he would no longer have any safe haven of normality.

* * *

><p>A day had passed and Kyousuke was currently typing away at his laptop.<p>

He was currently going through various applications of advanced physics and chemistry. This level of work is already at a college undergraduate level, but he wasn't doing this since he was good at it. He was doing it since he was bad at it.

No, he wasn't a perfectionist nor does he want to seem like some sort of genius despite that people who often thought of him as a lazy and dull person would have a change of heart. He was doing this since he might need it at sometime in the future. Though technically speaking, physics and chemistry was something that people encounter in a near daily basis.

Inputting the last few calculations to what needs to be done in order to reduce the forces that is applied to a person falling from a high height with the sudden addition of a single force that pulls into the person's hip. Essentially, this is a person falling from a high height and then suddenly using a grappling hook. So he's trying to find out what to do to make the person survive the sudden jerking sensation and to analyze the structure of the string used if it would break at that situation. Once the analysis is done, he could find a way through the use of several advance calculations to find how or which structure should the string be to withstand the force for the duration or for that instant to which the full force is felt.

Kyousuke sighed and pushed himself away from his laptop as he rubbed the bridge of his nose.

Numbers. It was one thing that he could never really escape from and it annoyed him to no end. If this didn't apply to his work so much, he would have never bothered with it.

Why the heck was he spending his free time on doing things that good students would do? He wasn't even a model student himself anyway!

Really, in these brief moments of lull, he should find something to occupy his time aside from sleeping. All his homework was done since he finished it with Manami the day before. Maybe he should get himself one of those portable gaming devices. He hadn't played a single video game for months now and even then, it was only when his school friends pulled him into one...

He was brought out of his thoughts when his phone began to ring.

Not even looking at where his phone was, his hand fumbled around his desk as he kept his eye shut. Once he found it, he placed it to his ears.

"Hello?"

"Kyou-sempai! How are you doing? Your injuries healing well?"

Resisting the urge to slam down the phone and ignore the caller, he took a deep breath.

"Cut the crap Junpei. What is it this time?"

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes:<strong>

Here's the third chapter of the story. Next chapter would give most of you who are wondering what exactly Kyousuke does for work the answer that you are seeking. I also apologize if this is shorter than intended, but I didn't think that it would mix in well with this chapter if I added any more.

The next chapter might be delayed since I've decided to rewrite some of the things I have written in advance.

Also, thanks to those who have inputted constructive criticism. I haven't actually corrected it until I updated with this chapter since I was too busy (or too lazy)... And like I've said before, I don't have a beta so I might have missed something so feel free to tell me if a mistake does show up.


	4. Invocation

**Disclaimer: I don't own Ore no Imouto ga konna ni Kawaii wake ga nai or any related products or characters. I only own this story.**

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><p>"Welcome! Welcome! I trust that the venue is to your liking?"<p>

There were a variety of confirmation from the guests invited, some even looked like they had agreed grudgingly.

It was no surprise after all, the building that hosted the gathering had an extremely lavish interior of western design. All of the materials were all high end, a small glance at the various utensils strewn about on the tables told him that either they had just been bought, or they had been rarely used. Those who had the looks of agreeing, albeit reluctantly, most likely boasted that they could hold a more lavish party – at least, before they attended this one.

If it weren't for the fact that he had gone into similar missions as the one he was currently in months earlier, he would have been a bit overwhelmed by the sheer amount of money used to set up such a venue. Although his reaction wouldn't really give him away since many of the other guests sported similar reactions.

"For the time being, please make yourselves at home. Our host will soon give his opening speech – and believe me, it will be the answer to your questions."

Once the jovial man finished speaking, soft music began playing and several butlers and maids entered with platters of food.

It was a real temptation to just drop down and eat everything that was on sight – if it weren't for the fact that doing so would jeopardize both his life and the mission.

_'One of these days... One of these days I really hope I go into a lavish party like this without any ulterior motive aside from eating...'_

As the saying goes, 'the way to the man's heart is through his stomach.' While Kyousuke couldn't be considered a glutton with how he wishes to live a normal life, it didn't mean that he didn't like good food. He often wished he would be able to cook the food that he had taken a liking too, but due to circumstances, he could only cook an average meal. Really, if there was one thing he'd rather not have as a normal trait, it would definitely be cooking.

Looking back a few hours earlier, he was briefed by his kohai, Junpei, that his mission was going to take place in Osaka. According to those in Inquesta and Forensics group of the organization his part of, some sort of gathering was taking place in one of the newly established buildings.

This normally wouldn't be odd, but what really put off those who investigated, was that they could in no way identify who is hosting the gathering. Furthermore, a certain number of the guests were unnamed. Even through the more questionable methods of obtaining information yielded nothing.

When this oddity was compared to recent previous cases that had not been fully solved, there was a disturbing amount of similarities.

It was due to this, that he was called to work as he had been the one that handled those cases.

Putting his utensils down after eating half of the meal presented to him, he glanced around to take a good look at all the guests present.

There was nothing to show that something was amiss, it just seemed like your average gathering – at least, in terms of a gathering.

"Umm..."

A hesitant voice from his left side entered his ear.

Sensing that someone seemed to be addressing him, Kyousuke turned his head to his left and noticed that, yes, someone was addressing him. The person in question was a young woman with turquoise colored hair, she had a gentle face and wore an elegant yet simple white gown.

"Yes..." Kyousuke took a quick glance at the name tag by the woman's shoulder, "Makina-san? What is the problem?"

"Are you feeling alright... Nakamura-san?" It seems that she also read the name tag that was pinned to his suit.

He had knocked out the man that was called 'Nakamura' an hour ago and took the man's invitation. Thankfully, it seemed the man had a case of sore eyes which allowed him to wear sunglasses that would conceal his identity to most of the guests. Furthermore, he could also use the man's doctor certificate to get past the guards so they wouldn't even need to ask him to remove his sunglasses... although even if they did, they probably wouldn't be able to recognize a single face specifically unless they were looking for the person in question.

"What do you mean, Makina-san?"

"You didn't finish your food."

He had stopped eating fifteen minutes ago and had only finished half of his plate. He couldn't afford to fill himself up in a mission.

Raising an eyebrow at the woman's genuine worry over his well being (not that it could be seen with his sun glasses), he decided to placate the young woman.

"I'm fine Makina-san. Thank you for your worry. I had an early dinner with an acquaintance an hour earlier... I couldn't reject the offer so you could say I'm suffering for it now."

The lie that came from his mouth rolled out so well, that he often wondered why he couldn't do the same whenever the teachers asked him the reasoning for his lack of homework.

"Is that so?"

With that statement, the woman placed her focus on her hands.

Kyousuke glanced around from his seat and found that the others have already stepped out of their seat and was now speaking with the other guests. If anything, this looked more like a normal gathering of the rich instead of 'the gathering of cohorts'. Although that was also the case with the previous mission that was similar to the one he was taking on now.

He could recognize some of those that had come in the gathering, but the majority of those who attended were foreigners. Listening to some of the conversations that took place wasn't that hard even if they spoke in their respective native languages – he spoke them too of course.

But the eavesdropping yielded nothing as they continued to talk about mundane things such as their businesses and the current venue.

Once an hour had passed and there was still no sign of the host, Kyousuke sighed.

Turning to his left, he noticed that the same woman from before was still by his side. Which was odd, considering that several others had actually tried to start a conversation with her.

"So, what are you doing here, Makina-san?"

He was pretty bored, but he supposed he could gather some information from the other guests if there were anything that might stand out as to why they were invited – aside from being fairly well off of course.

"What do you mean?" She asked after a moment's pause. It seemed like she was caught off guard by the question, or the fact that he was once again talking with her.

"You don't seem to be the type to have gone willingly into such a gathering."

It was an observation he had made casually, one that sounded as if he merely stated an observation. If he hadn't been looking for it, he would have probably missed it, but the woman had just winced at his observation.

Kyousuke however, shook his head before the woman could in anyway reply.

"You don't need to explain. It's just an observation, nothing more."

He had no right to pry, their reasons are their own. Furthermore, he already knew what her reason probably was even if it wasn't concrete.

At the very least he could consider her as one of the few people in this party that he would consciously avoid from hurting if everything goes south.

"...what about you, Nakamura-san? You don't seem to be interested in mingling with the other guests." Makina-san said after a moment's pause.

He internally debated on whether he should answer with a lie or with the truth just to amuse her.

"I'm actually just here for the host. I didn't come here to interact with all the other guests in the first place."

"Is that so?"

The way she posed her question, was utterly genuine that even if he hadn't been looking, he could already picture a metaphorical question mark appearing over her head.

Before anymore could be said, the lights suddenly turned off and the music had stopped. The conversations that had been going on before hand had also stopped. A second after the silence had become the only thing present within the air, a spot light shone over the top of the stairs that had a man with a white suit gracefully stepping down from.

The man wore a white suit, one that seemed to make him glow with an overly bright light under the spot light. It was like seeing a miniature version of the 'moon' being lighted up by the 'sun'. Along with the white hair the man sported, his youthful face, and his gentle smile, it certainly gave more credence to his divine-like air.

The man's gaze scanned over the audience, momentarily stopping to where he was seated – their eyes making contact – before a smile, one that was predatory, overshadowed his previous smile.

During that moment, Kyousuke could immediately discern one thing.

With years of experience, and having survived many situations that would make even the most hardened veteran green with jealousy, Kyousuke pushed the young woman to his left out of her seat just as he himself jumped away from his position.

It was a good thing he did.

A mere second after he had pushed himself back, a gigantic sword cleaved directly where he had been sitting.

Gasps sounded out at the commotion, many scrambled as far as they could away from his position and some even started trying to run out of the venue. The woman that he had pushed out of the way earlier, was still frozen watching the display with morbid fascination.

The man that had cleaved where he was earlier, turned towards him as he shouldered the large blade. Due to the darkness, he couldn't quite see the details regarding the man's facial feature, but the man was definitely tall – a whole foot taller than himself – yet his large blade was even longer than he is tall. The fact that he wielded it using only one hand meant that this person was either really strong, or was some sort of power user.

"You are not Nakamura." The tall man said with a deep voice.

It was a simple statement, but it had the intended effect of making a cold shiver run down his spine.

Normally, such a reaction should not have come as he was experienced with these kinds of dangerous situations.

But when the large man had uttered those words, he realized that he hadn't fully avoided the attack to his person.

The name tag that had moments ago been clipped on his suit was now at the hands of the tall man.

Clamping down hard on his hesitations, Kyousuke snapped both of his hands to his sides. From his sleeves, two long combat knives dropped down to his hands.

The man however, had not been idly waiting either.

By the time the two knives had made its way to his hands, the man already brandished his sword in a diagonal arc toward his body, starting from the man's right and descending downwards to his left.

He lowered his body as fast as he could and as close to the ground as possible without actually falling towards it to avoid the attack. Even with his speed he only narrowly avoided the attack as the tail end of his suit was sliced cleanly off.

Bringing his knife up to bare, Kyousuke aimed a strike towards the man's neck with his left while his right kept the sword that had been brought down on the floor.

Just before the knife could reach the man's neck, the man swiftly blocked it with his free hand and twisted it to grab Kyousuke's wrist.

Kyousuke acted quickly, by lashing out with his other knife while at the same time jumping up towards the man's chest.

The result was immediate.

The man let go of his left hand as his knife narrowly missed the man's hand, while Kyousuke twisted mid-air as he placed both of his feet on the man's chest and jumping off of it to put some distance between the man and himself.

The whole confrontation lasted only twenty seconds.

"Isn't it about time you left... Busou Tantei's Black Ops?"

The man uttered in an impassive tone as he shouldered his giant sword.

Kyousuke grimaced.

He had forgotten that this had been a place of gathering, which meant that there were still innocents around.

His mission was ultimately to find if the man behind the gathering would be the same man from the previous missions he had entered and what the man was after. He had certainly failed on finding the objective, but at least he could conclude several things.

One, the man was prepared to go against Busou Tantei and two, the man apparently had enough power or connections to hypnotize everyone else in the room.

He had wondered why everyone had suddenly turn silent. He initially thought it was because everyone was too shock at the play of events. But seeing it now when his life wasn't exactly in immediate danger, he noticed that there was something odd – like an eerie feeling was permeating from the place he was in.

Taking a small glance at the white haired man under the spot light, the man gave a cold smile to him as if verifying his thoughts.

If what he was thinking was indeed true, then this was not a battle he could win without the sacrifice of innocent lives.

Pulling two small spheres from his pockets, he tossed one then the other towards the floor before escaping.

* * *

><p>"Was it a wise decision in letting him see you, Master?"<p>

The man that had attacked the intruder several minutes ago, questioned the man beside him as his own impassive gaze scanned through the audience before settling towards the woman that the intruder had interacted with.

"It matters not. With the way things are going, it'll be too late for Busou Tantei to do anything once they've fully realized what we are doing."

The white haired man took a sip from his wine, giving off an amused expression as he noticed how subdued the crowd was. It was amusing to him since he knew the reasoning as to why they all had a somewhat confused expression – they were no doubt wondering why they feel tired or somewhat apprehensive despite not having any memories as to why they felt that way.

"For now, hasten the production and gathering of the materials. We'll move our base of operations elsewhere."

The tall man bowed before walking down the corridor to which the white haired man used to enter the gathering hall.

As soon as his companion left, the white haired man turned towards the young woman that the agent had interacted with. She was currently clutching at her head, no doubt trying to sort out whatever happened. It was no surprise after all, the agent had interacted with her the most after all.

"Hmm... Maybe a few countermeasures would be beneficial."

The man muttered before he finally sat up from his seat and decided to finally interact with the guests.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes:<strong>

Sorry about this being late. I blame college.

I've also played around with the recently released Ore no Imouto visual novel, so I have some new ideas to throw around in the future...

If there's any information that might seem vague - that's intentional. Some of the things here will play a role in later events, while some of the things here will be elaborated on in the following chapters. Now if it was vague due to grammatical errors, then feel free to alert me to it.


	5. Interactions

**Disclaimer: I do not own Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii wake ga nai, or other characters that may appear in this fan fiction. The only thing I do own is the plot of this story.**

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><p><em>Someone was crying, it was definitely near him. Yet, he couldn't pinpoint as to where the crying was coming from.<em>

_Listen. Listen to where the sound is coming from._

_His mind was already foggy, he was sure that he knew why he came here. Yet, the details were escaping him._

_The sound was coming from below him._

_Is it under me?_

_Looking down, there was a girl clutching his torn clothing. Blood was falling profusely from his wounds, yet the girl continued to hold on as if her life depended on it. He realized that he was kneeling on the ground and the girl was crying on his lap. One of his hands were on the crying girl's head, unmoving. While his other hand, seemed to be holding a gun. But he couldn't feel anything._

_He couldn't really focus, he couldn't even determine the features of the girl despite having his eyes set on her crying form for a while now. It seemed like every time he blinked, the features would be erased from his mind._

_Focus. This place is too dangerous. _

_Focus. It was too dangerous for the both of them._

_Focus. He needed to get up and get out of...here._

_Focus... focus?_

_He felt lightheaded. He couldn't feel pain. He couldn't feel anything._

_He looked up to the sky, rain drops softly falling to his face as he did so. But just like he couldn't feel pain, he couldn't feel the water as it dropped and ran down his cheeks._

_The sky was crying. A small beam of light pierced the crying sky and shone upon his position, as if directing him as the reason to why it's crying._

_His mouth opened, only to utter what he felt at the moment. Both in mind and body._

"_I... I feel so numb."_

_Then, the world around him exploded._

* * *

><p>"Kousaka, place that box on that shelf over there."<p>

"O-okay."

"Once you're done with that, bring the box next to the door to the storage room within the gym. The basketball manager has been waiting for that particular supply since yesterday."

"R-right."

It had been three days since the end of the mission in Osaka, and no information has been discovered since then. Further research has yielded nothing, but Junpei seemed quite confident that he'd be able to find something at least from the mercenary that appeared during the confrontation.

"Kousaka."

Kyousuke paused at the door after picking up the box that the teacher had assigned him to bring.

"Can't you please stay awake in class?" The teacher gave an exasperated sigh.

He had once again become the errand boy of his homeroom teacher as a form of detention for sleeping through several teacher's classes. This had earned him a rather notorious reputation within the school, but as no one had actually seen him doing something that delinquents might do outside of school or even within it, others only saw him as a lazy student who had no care for his future.

Those who actually tried to think of theories for his lack of attention (and sometimes, lack of presence in the classroom) could only think that he either had too much video games or had been doing something late at night. Whatever the 'late at night' he was doing, was different from person to person.

"I try sensei... but don't I do well enough in tests and projects?"

If he didn't ace his exams and finished his projects in time, he would have probably failed a multitude of classes by now.

"That's not what I'm trying to get at." The teacher shook his head. "If you ever get into a job, then your current work ethics isn't going to cut it."

Kyousuke had to repress as sigh that was building up at what his teacher was getting at. It was a point that many other teachers had also noted.

If only his teachers knew what he did that made him so tired.

"I understand sensei."

Kyousuke didn't need to make an excuse, rather he shouldn't make an excuse. If he had admitted that his lack of sleep was due to some unknown work to which he spent more attention in than school, people might start thinking of new theories and heaven help him if one of those wayward theories made it to his parents. It's best for them to assume that he was some sort of lazy student than someone that did unscrupulous things to get him so tired.

Bowing before he left the room, Kyousuke walked towards the gym.

Midway towards the gym however, a friend of his greeted him.

"Yo, Kyousuke!"

"Hey, Akagi."

"What's with that depressing reply?"

"..."

"How long have you been doing errands for our teacher?"

"...long enough."

"Ouch." Kouhei winced in sympathy.

It wasn't a surprise, since said teacher had a history of being part of his college's football varsity team. So the teacher might have a skewed interpretation of what normal students shouldn't be able to do easily.

Well it wasn't like he was a normal student anyway.

"So what was it that you needed, sis-con sergeant."

"D-don't call me that!"

"Would yaoi fanboy be a more appropriate title?"

"I told you! That was a misunderstanding!" Kyousuke only laughed at that.

Kyousuke had known Kouhei since middle school, and had been one of the more consistent friends that he had garnered throughout the years. Like his childhood friend, Kouhei had stuck with him through thick and thin so casual teasing like this would be a rare sight aside from those close to him.

As for Kyousuke finding out about those odd facts about Kouhei, it was mostly a chance incident when he had found Kouhei at around midnight in Akihabara after returning from a mission. Kouhei had been lined up in a midnight sale towards a yaoi visual novel. Kouhei explained that his sister had asked him to do so, which only allowed Kyousuke to make the last two assumptions.

"Alright, alright. What was it that you needed Akagi?"

Although, he did find it amusing that Kouhei did not outright deny he was a sis-con.

"Isn't it rude to assume I would come to you needing something?"

"..."

"Fine, you win." Kouhei grumbled, following Kyousuke into the gym. "My sister wanted your input in a program she was making."

"Hmm... Your sister is in her last year of middle school, right?"

"Yeah. She wanted to impress her kohai's and said it wouldn't be right if they found something wrong with it."

Kyousuke placed the box he was assigned to bring inside the storage room. After receiving a nod of acknowledgment from the basketball team manager, he walked outside to continue his conversation with Kouhei.

"Couldn't you test it for her?"

The look that Kouhei sent his way made him sigh.

Right.

Kouhei was an idiot when it came to computers.

"Let me get my bag and we'll head over to her school."

It was Kouhei's little sister's final project. So he supposed visiting her in her middle school to check her work would be a good surprise.

Even if the look Kouhei's little sister sent his way whenever he was with Kouhei chilled him to the bone.

* * *

><p>The normal procedures when it came to investigations that had a clearance level of 10 or higher, essentially made more recent investigations of that level to be placed in higher priority despite the fact if there was an investigation that preceded it. The only exceptions was when the previous investigation had links to the current investigation or that the previous one had more immediate repercussions.<p>

As it stands, the investigation that Kyousuke had involved himself several nights ago was of the clearance level 10. Nevertheless, a previous investigation that had been relegated from the European Main Branch took higher priority than the investigation he had done since it could affect the whole Busou Tantei organization.

For someone like him that hated mysteries, this made often made him fidgety and impatient for further breakthroughs. Even though such instances gave him more free time, he felt that the free time was wasted when he had such thoughts going on within his head.

He could take it unto his own hands, but then that would be reckless.

"Hey, Akagi."

Normal school days like these are something that he often looked forward to as it lacked the kick of a surprise during a mission whenever he was caught off guard. Of course, there are some days that could be comparable to a day in a mission.

"What is it Kyousuke?"

Kyousuke truly hoped that Kouhei had somehow messed up the middle school that they were supposed to go to. It was supposed to be Kouhei's little sister getting surprised, not him!

"Is this really the place?"

Kouhei nodded, unsure as to why Kyousuke was holding such a surprised expression.

The school in front of Kyouske was not the middle school of his little sister. If in case it was, he would have hightailed it out of the premises before he even got to the front gate. He knew the school his sister went to and all the possible routes to head to said school that even if he wasn't paying attention to the scenery his body could instinctively tell if he was anywhere near said school.

No, he didn't stalk his sister. That would have been wrong.

He knew each path so if in case something went wrong, he would be able to trace her location and rescue her covertly or give enough clues for his father to work it out himself.

His intentions were pure after all.

The reason why he was still hesitant on entering said school was of another matter entirely.

"Ara, if it isn't senpai." An elegant female voice entered his ears as he mechanically turned his head towards the source of the voice.

It was because a kohai from his job studied there.

"Y-yo, Gokou-san."

It was a rather forced greeting as Kyousuke attempted to hide any signs of his earlier doubts on entering said school.

"Senpai, I've told you that you are free to refer to me as Kuroneko or with my given name." Kuroneko said in a teasing yet seductive tone that she often used when talking with him.

It didn't help that whenever she did speak using that tone, an odd chill ran down his spine.

Said chill told him that, for all of his skill as the one and only Black Ops of Busou Tantei Japan Branch, if he said anything wrong he'd be dead several hundred times over.

"R-right, Kuroneko. What are you doing here?"

It was a stupid question.

Kuroneko raised an eyebrow at the question. Whether it was due to surprise or amusement at his obvious mental disarray, he couldn't tell.

"I study here of course."

He resisted the urge to mentally slap himself. He needed to maintain his focus!

Thankfully, Kouhei chose that time to intervene. Although in hindsight, Kyousuke shouldn't have expected him to save him from this confrontation.

"O-oi! Kyousuke!" Akagi hissed.

If he was attempting to make it so that Kuroneko wouldn't hear what he was whispering then he was doing a poor job of it.

"H-how do you know of Gokou Ruri?!"

Judging by how Akagi knew of Kuroneko's full name without her uttering it, seemed to verify the fact that Kuroneko was somehow _unique_ to garner his attention.

"What do you mean?"

It wasn't like he knew anything else about Kuroneko aside from the stuff he had already witnessed.

"Don't tell me you didn't know?!" Kouhei burst out grabbing his shoulder to emphasize his point.

"..."

Kouhei sighed, his head drooping down despite the fact that he kept his hands on Kyousuke's shoulder.

"She's the Master Seamstress! Some had even said that she sewed clothing for the rich and famous, while certain clothing designs in anime and visual novels are designed or based on her designs!"

In hindsight, Kyousuke should have expected this after seeing how eccentric she was when he first met her. She wasn't the most eccentric of course, but then she still was (at least in his opinion). He had naively assumed that because he tried to keep a low profile, his colleagues would do the same.

He didn't know of all the fame that Kuroneko had gathered outside of Busou Tantei (barring the fact that being a Busou Tantei is a secret that none of its members can mention to anyone else), but if there was one thing he knew about her, it was her ability to sew.

"I – I wasn't aware of that..." Kyousuke replied. Forgoing the fact that he knew she sewed.

Kuroneko shook her head at his reply, but had nonetheless expected it.

"That aside, what are you doing here senpai?" Kuroneko asked. "As much as I'd like to think it was because you wanted to visit your cute kouhai, I doubt that's the case."

Kyousuke sighed. Hopefully by keeping it vague, she'll try not to delve in further Although he was oblivious to Kuroneko's advances, it didn't take a genius to realize that if it was known he was about to give support to another female kouhai of his _something_ bad will happen.

"I'm just helping this guy's sibling." Kyousuke replied, pointing a finger towards Kouhei.

"Is that so?" Kuroneko said raising an eyebrow. "Then you wouldn't mind if I tagged along?"

Crap. This was what he was trying to prevent!

"Wait, Kuroneko, aren't you busy?" Kyousuke said hesitantly, ignoring Kouhei's protest that he wasn't against such an occurrence.

Although Kouhei was a sis-con, it didn't mean that he wasn't immune to other girls altogether.

"That's true." Kuroneko conceded. "But, since it's not entirely urgent as of now then I'm willing to spend some time with you senpai."

Damn it. Why wasn't he any good at convincing other people to back off? Is that why most of his missions tended to end up with him injured?

"Kyousuke! You luck-"

Kyousuke swiftly punched Kouhei on the face.

* * *

><p>"So senpai... why exactly are you helping that <em>friend<em> of yours' sibling?" Kuroneko asked as they climbed the stairs to the third floor.

Kouhei, had finally recovered from the punch that Kyousuke threw him, and was now grumbling about how he had garnered the attention of the Master Seamstress.

Kyousuke had absolutely no idea as to how famous Kuroneko was, and he had no intention of finding out by asking any of his friends. Seeing Akagi's reaction alone, it was enough of a warning for future meetings. It's a good thing that other Busou Tantei's weren't allowed to enter the premises of another Busou Tantei member without alerting the agent that was living within the area – unless, he was unaware of another Busou Tantei member lived near their premises.

Today was a one time exception (hopefully) since he had never visited Akagi's sister's school. Kuroneko also took it in stride since she had no idea that he didn't know she studied in this school. There was also the fact that Kuroneko could be extremely lenient or extremely strict in regards to things that concerned him.

In all honesty, he wasn't entirely sure why that was the case... maybe it was because she liked to tease him?

"Akagi here is incompetent in regards to computers."

"Hey!"

Kouhei, however, did not say anymore on the matter since it was in fact true.

"So his sibling often asked me for help whenever I came over to their house to hang out."

There really was no need to keep the gender of Kouhei's sibling a secret since Kuroneko was going with them to the club room, but he wanted to postpone it, even if it's just a couple of minutes. Who knows, maybe collateral damage could be reduced to a bare minimum?

If that ever happened, then Junpei would have won the bet, _again._

For someone that barely interacted with him outside of Busou Tantei, he could make accurate guesses in his everyday life. Could it be that the games Junpei played somehow emulated his life?

Nah. That couldn't be it.

"Hm? This must be the place." Kouhei commented, noticing the club sign of the Computer Club.

"Why does it sound like you're not sure?"

"To be honest, she never lets me go to her school."

That was new. Maybe it was because his sister knew that he was a sis-con and wanted to avoid being embarrassed by said brother? For all the times that Kyousuke had met Kouhei's sister, she wasn't openly affectionate with her brother which was a sharp contrast to how Kouhei himself treated her.

"Wait." Kuroneko said, stopping Kyousuke from opening the door to the club. "Are you telling me, that this _friend_ of yours sibling, is part of the Computer Club?"

Kyousuke internally winced. Even though he wasn't sure why she was asking, he had a feeling that by answering it he would in no way be postponing the inevitable outburst.

"Uh -"

Before Kyouske could reply, the door that Kyousuke had been holding onto suddenly opened.

"Ah! It's senpai!"

It was without a doubt, Akagi Sena, Kouhei's sister.

"I didn't know you were visiting today."

Turning his attention away from Kuroneko even as a dark aura seemingly flared around her, he greeted his kouhai.

"Your brother wanted me to assist you with your program."

There was a slight pause, once Sena took a good look of Kyousuke and Kouhei. It was a rather _disturbing _look. One that constantly reminded Kyousuke, that yes, the one time that Kyousuke had seen lining up to buy a Yaoi Visual Novel was for his sister.

"..."

Kyousuke shifted uncomfortably at the stare that Sena seemed to be directing him and Kouhei. Kouhei on the other hand, seemed to bask at the stare that her sister was directing the both of them. If Kouhei was happy about this predicament, then he was truly a sis-con... or he really did swing the other way.

Thankfully, at least, for the current moment, Kuroneko intervened.

"Ara, it seems you're directing such a dirty look towards my senpai, Akagi-san." Kuroneko commented, walking up to face Sena. "Please don't put my senpai in your delusions or I'll be forced to _correct _it."

"Ah!" Sena finally had gotten out of her creepy stare and turned towards Kuroneko, giving her an accusing finger. "You!"

Kuroneko gave her a condescending smirk, holding herself in her usual elegance. Even without her Gothic Lolita clothing, the presence was without a doubt there.

"What are you doing here? And he's not your senpai, he's mine!"

In all technicality, they were both his kouhai.

"For your information, Akagi-san, he's been my senpai in more ways than _one_." Kuroneko said seductively tracing a finger through his arms in a slow yet purposeful manner.

Kyousuke just knew that the way Kuroneko had said it and the action she had done to exemplify her words, would give others the wrong idea. He couldn't really deny it really, it was _true_ to a certain extent.

"M-more ways than one?" Kouhei and Sena breathed out looking scandalized – or in the former's case, envy.

Vaguely, other students that had been walking around minding their own business all stopped and looked towards their direction reflecting a look that the Akagi siblings currently held.

Kyousuke sighed.

This was going to be a long afternoon.

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><p>Steps.<p>

Steps echoed throughout the silent hallway that led to a single door. The white haired young man paused before the door and knocked on it. Hearing no response, the young man entered the room.

The room that the young man had entered was filled with a variety of tools varying from things one might expect to see in a Physics and Chemistry lab. Oddly enough, there was also some things that one wouldn't – or rather, shouldn't be found in a lab of any sort.

All of this was ignored by the white haired young man, as he walked towards the only living person within the room.

Said person was covered by a variety of papers and was for all and intents purposes asleep.

The white haired man shook his head at the sleeping form of the professor. Judging by his actions alone, this seemed to be a daily occurrence.

"Professor."

Gently shaking the professor, the papers that covered the man slowly fell by the wayside revealing long white hair that indicated of old age which was in contrast to the white haired young man.

Surely enough, the professor woke up, stretching his limbs and rubbing his eyes before looking towards the person who had woke him from his sleep.

The professor gave an inquisitive glance at the young man that had woke him up, before giving a grumble at being disturbed.

"What is it?"

The white haired man gave a rather annoying smile to the professor.

"I just came here to inform you."

The professor raised an eyebrow at what the man stated, waiting expectantly.

"The anomaly has been found."

The white haired man didn't even wait for his words to register as he immediately turned around to leave the room. He didn't need to confirm that the professor had understood what he was referring to, after all the maniacal laugh that rang throughout the hallway emitting from the professor's lab was enough of an answer.

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><p><strong>Author's Notes:<strong>

...it's late. That much I concede.

I'll warn everyone now that my updates will become even more sporadic since I'm putting most of my focus in school work (even my other story is being affected badly), due to a sudden shift in life. If I put it under Persona (that awesome game of Atlus) terms, I'm feeling the effects of the Arcana, 'Wheel of Fortune'...

This chapter is mainly a form of everyday life for Kyousuke. I'm guessing that the next few chapters will be mainly proceeding in a similar vain before the plot I had planned out kicks up once again. As for Kuroneko actually attending the middle school that Sena went to, I just placed it in there for the heck of it. I have no idea if they did go to the same middle school in canon so don't take my word for it.

Anyway, if there's anything wrong grammatically feel free to inform me. Otherwise just tell me what you guys think.


	6. Busou Tantei

**Disclaimer: I don't own Ore no Imouto konna ni kawaii wake ga nai, Persona 3, Hidan no Aria and its characters. The only thing I do own is this story.**

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><p><em>There was one thing that he could immediately understand from the woman that was a whole field across from him: she wasn't normal.<em>

_Not normal in the sense that, she held a feeling that others didn't seem to exude. If he hadn't experienced or saw the things he did a few months ago, he would have merely thought of the woman as an overly motherly sort of woman much like the housewives that gossiped in a grocery store as they tried to debate what they should cook for dinner._

_But no, the woman was far from normal. It was subtle, but he could clearly see it. The way that she held herself despite the fact that she probably witnessed something of the same degree that he did and yet act so _normal_ in the eyes of society was commendable and at the same time... so disconcerting._

_Her eyes told him all he needed to know._

_It was comforting much like how his own mother would shower him with love and care when he was much younger, but there was a certain edge – a power that wouldn't look out of place from a veteran._

_If there was one thing he could confirm right now, was that she held what he was looking for._

_Judging by the look that she sent his way, it seemed like the feeling was mutual._

* * *

><p>After helping out with Sena's project and parting with the siblings once they exited the school, Kyousuke allowed himself to be lead by Kuroneko.<p>

Kuroneko hadn't exactly said where they were going, but Kyousuke already had a feeling as to their current destination. It only took one look from her before they exited the school gates that told him they needed to part ways with those not in the know, or are part of the organization.

The name of the organization was 'Busou Tantei' or 'Armed Detective' as it's known overseas. It was an organization that originated from Europe and now had several branches around the world. Despite this, it was unknown to the general public. And with good reason.

'Busou Tantei' or 'Butei' for short, are made up of men and women that holds a special talent that exceeds those of normal officers. If a person was drafted to become one, that person definitely had what it took and had the talent to surpass those trained the normal way. In fact the majority of those in Butei were mostly under the age of 20 and those that are older are often the trainers of upcoming recruits.

With such talent, it raises the question as to why these talented men and women didn't participate actively in crime enforcement?

The answer was simple: it was because they couldn't.

For all of 'Busou Tantei's' capabilities, they were still an illegal entity. They couldn't act simply because only those in the higher echelon of the government knew of their existence and sometimes, not even then. Busou Tantei needed the 'go signal' from those in the know, to actively participate in something big so as to not compromise their secrecy (but even if the mission would be considered 'big' if they could properly keep the information from getting to the authorities and general populace's attention, then they would still go through with it). Furthermore, some of the talents, and technology used by Busou Tantei are kept secret from the general public.

Not even the Secret Service or the equivalent of any government could hold a candle to the way that Busou Tantei operated. It was often vexing when conflict arises between the officials and those part of Busou Tantei – after all, they don't exactly know how they operated and their achievements, thus they were skeptical with their capabilities.

Even with their secrecy and their avoidance of being known to the general public, the government could create a contract with them when normal methods can't yield the results they're looking for (provided they know that they exist). After all, if legal methods can't do it, then the questionable methods might just do it.

Reaching a rather decrepit old building (at least, compared to the other buildings around it) a few kilometers west of the school, Kuroneko and Kyousuke ambled their way to the stairs and headed down. It would be a long climb down, but at the very least they didn't have to come back the same way they did.

Once they reached a rather empty room, Kuroneko took out her cellphone and dialed something into it. It only took a second before a reply came and a small hatch appeared from the wall adjacent to the stairs that they had used to reach the floor they're currently in.

Kuroneko placed her hand into the hatch, just as Kyousuke closed his own eyes and leaned onto a wall at the opposite end of where Kuroneko was.

Kyousuke wasn't closing his eyes because he wasn't allowed to see what Kuroneko was doing nor was it due to something as mundane as resting his own eyes.

Soon enough, a feeling akin to falling assaulted Kyousuke's senses. The feeling of wind rushed through his body as if his clothing wasn't there and he could feel the sun as if it was glaring directly at him. The wind was rushing through his ears, muffling anything except the sounds of the wind going through his body. With the speed he was going, if there was nothing to stop his fall...

"Sempai, the door has opened."

The feeling was gone. There were no sign of harsh winds or the sun that had been glaring down at him, in fact he was still in the very same spot that he had been before Kuroneko placed her hands in the now closed hatch. His clothing didn't look the least bit ruffled either.

"Are you alright, sempai?" Kuroneko asked, sounding a bit worried. He couldn't properly see her eyes due to the lack of lighting in their current location, but he could guess that she was also looking at him worriedly.

"I – it's fine." Kyousuke said as he pushed himself away from the wall. "Nothing that I'm not used to."

The sad thing about that, was that he had actually fallen from such a height without any form of parachute. It was a good thing he had back-up during that time.

Kuroneko frowned but didn't pursue the matter as this hadn't been the first time that she had seen the after effects of the defense mechanism on Kyousuke. At the very least, the effects had lessened somewhat.

The defense mechanism that had been installed as door opened was merely a simple pulse. The pulse would send those that lacked the resistance brought about by exposure to similar stimuli, completely incapacitated. Those that experienced often felt a feeling of nausea along with a headache, but ten times worse. The pulse would fire three pulses in rapid succession that not even those accustomed to pain could properly prepare for it even if they had been expecting it.

The Busou Tantei members and staff all had developed a resistance to the pulse and would merely feel a slight feeling of unease and the pain of a very mild brain freeze.

Kyousuke, having been in Busou Tantei for over two years, was embarrassed to admit that he had never formed the resistance that other members had managed to attain after only experiencing it less than thirty times. Then again, no one but Kyousuke had experienced the things he did anyway, it also helped that he could still fight rather well despite under its debilitating effects.

Just that... he fights a whole rank lower than he could normally fight.

That would have been a point of concern, if it weren't for the fact that Kyousuke was a Rank S Black Ops Butei.

Busou Tantei had several groups and ranking that determined what jobs were fit for certain agents.

The first group would be the Forensics group. These people are the ones that analyze crime scenes and bring out information that the local government forces fail to bring up. This group also works twice as fast and is way more efficient than any forensics group around the globe. They are also trained to take data even in an active battlefield.

The second group is the Inquesta group. They're the ones in charge of doing investigations based on the data gathered from Forensics, and will continue the data gathering based on what the Forensics had obtained. When a direct confrontation becomes inevitable, they call on the next group of Busou Tantei.

The Assault Group is the third group in Busou Tantei. These are the group of individuals that are astoundingly good in the neutralization of hostile enemy forces, be it through close quarter combat or mid-range fights. They are often sent out in the most dangerous of environments which meant that this group holds the highest rate of fatality when compared to the other groups in Busou Tantei.

The fourth group is the Sniper Group. As the name implies these are the individuals that are talented in the ways of attacking precisely from afar. Those that achieved an A rank or higher were said to be able to snipe a target with the same amount of accuracy regardless of how far they are so long as they were within the range of their weapon.

The fifth group is the Interrogation Group. As Busou Tantei operates outside of government jurisdiction, means of obtaining information from a captured enemy, could be done with no holds barred. Although those in the higher ranking could actually obtain information and analyze it while simply holding a conversation, so torture tools/methods were only used when not even those in the higher ranking could yield the information that they want in the allotted time limit.

Kuroneko fell under the Interrogation group having an A Rank at it while she had a B Rank in Assault Group. Kyousuke never actually found out _why_ Kuroneko had joined Busou Tantei, but he didn't ask as she also had never asked the circumstances that made him join Busou Tantei either.

Kuroneko had in fact joined Busou Tantei a mere two months after Kyousuke had began active duty. Due to the closeness of the timing and the expression she held as she pushed herself in the training to become part of Busou Tantei, Kyousuke felt himself responsible over the girl. It was irrational, but he couldn't find himself to disagree with his own assessment.

Which, of course, is probably the reason she held him in such high regard...

The sixth group is the ESP group. Despite what the public thinks, there exists individuals that hold an ability that no normal person could possibly have – if a Busou Tantei member holds a supernatural ability that they can manifest, they are considered part of this group even if it isn't their main area of expertise. Incidentally, this group holds the least amount of individuals and those that reach rank A or exceeded it within Busou Tantei, could be counted with a single pair of hands. It's also partly due to this group that Busou Tantei had to be kept secret from the general public.

The Final Group would be the Special Ops or 'Black Ops' as some had opted to call it. These are the few individuals that hold at least 2 Rank A in several groups and holds at least a C Rank in everything else. These individuals are considered the Jack-of-all-trades and those in the higher ranks can actively stall a small army on their own for at least fifteen minutes without back-up.

Kyousuke was one of the few individuals in the whole of Busou Tantei that was considered an S Rank Special Ops. He held a Rank of A or higher in nearly all the groups with the exception of the ESP group (D Rank) and Interrogation Group (D Rank), and was considered the pride of the Japanese branch. It was due to that reason that he was usually sent in the most hazardous of missions as sending a group could prove too detrimental to the missions completion or the members involved (it also helped that he actually opted to go solo).

The fact that he would only be degraded to an A Rank under the effects of such a pulse was a testament to his skills and capabilities. Despite this fact, it was still worrisome since the mission he was usually sent to could even make an S Rank Assault Member, fear for his/her safety when a confrontation became inevitable.

It was pretty odd really, that out of anyone that has experienced the 'pulse' only he had felt what he did. That meant that he did not actually fall unconscious the first time he had felt it and merely felt a disorienting effect (it was a good thing it didn't really affect his perception of his enemy), but it was worrying to say the least.

"Well, if you're fine, then you're fine." Kuroneko conceded as she walked towards the opening that had revealed itself after the biometrics scan. "Let's head on in before we have to do the opening procedures all over again."

Kyousuke nodded as he followed her in. If there was anyone that followed them, they would have been rendered incapacitated by the pulse and the resulting feedback would have told them if there was anyone else there with them. Since there were none, it was safe to assume that no one had indeed followed them.

Once the door had closed, Kyousuke found himself once again, within the confines of the Busou Tantei Japan Main Branch. Located several miles below ground level (without the training he and Kuroneko had, it would have taken hours for them to reach the entry point) it wasn't such a surprise that the branch was as big as it was. It holds a lot of technology not available to the public to conduct tests and research, and it also held several large simulation training centers so that recruits and members could keep their skills from deteriorating.

"Huh, Kyou-senpai?"

Kyousuke turned to look towards the person that addressed him, not that he needed to as he already recognized the voice.

Wearing a baseball cap along with a blue vest and a white t-shirt, Iori Junpei was looking at his direction with a heated bento by his hand and a soda on the other. Judging by the way he held it, it seemed like he just came from the cafeteria and was on the way back to his office.

Junpei was really hard to mistake for anyone else as he was the only one that ever wore a baseball cap.

"Eating, bento from the convenience store again, Junpei-san?" Kuroneko remarked with her usual cool demeanor. "It's rather unhealthy if you don't put some variation into your diet."

Which was somewhat true, Kyousuke admitted. It was around five months ago that he had seen Junpei eat that particular brand of bento. He was also pretty sure that couldn't be bought in the cafeteria. It clearly didn't make any sense since he was pretty sure the cafeteria food was much more tasty than something that could be bought from a convenience store and said convenience store was pretty far if one was to actually take the time to walk to it and back...

"It's not unhealthy! Besides, I only eat it every Tuesday and Thursday night."

"That's still pretty unhealthy..."

Kuroneko would know, she's a rather good cook if he had to say so himself.

"Junpei... you're still meeting up with Chidori-san?" Kyousuke asked, noting the brand of the bento.

Chidori was the name of the clerk that ran the convenience store that Junpei frequented to obtain said bento. She was a rather ordinary woman albeit with natural dark red hair. She apparently liked drawing and had been working in her uncle's convenience store part-time so she could earn enough money to enter a good University once she finished high school.

The way Junpei flinched was all the answer that they needed.

"Oh? Does that mean, Junpei-san has actually been trying to court a _real life_ woman? I must give my praise."

Despite the rather appraising tone, Kuroneko would have made any men she said that to feel lower than dirt. It didn't help that it was an accurate description of Junpei since he mostly spent his free time playing video games (a good portion of which were eroge). When Junpei actually attempts his so called 'flirting' to the fairer sex, it often ended badly.

It was a good thing it wasn't directed at him.

"S-stop that! I – I'm just giving her support, that's all!"

Junpei seemed rather flustered, at Kuroneko's comment which all but verified her assessment and Kyousuke's own suspicions.

"A-anyway, Kyou-sempai, what are you doing here today?" Junpei coughed in an attempt to change the subject. "You don't normally come here."

Which was true seeing as he was often trying to live a normal life as much as possible before the multitude of dangerous jobs that the headquarters would no doubt assign him came by. Without those periods of rest with nothing to remind him of the stressful life he led outside the eyes of his family, he doubted he could keep his secret for so long.

"I was hoping that you could verify some of the things that Kuroneko has noticed in my last mission and I wanted a bit of an update."

Junpei nodded, "Alright, let's meet at my office. Some of the things I'm going to say are only available to those of A Rank or higher."

Kyousuke nodded as he and Kuroneko followed Junpei.

* * *

><p>Offices were often granted to those who handled missions of A Rank or higher. Those that often went solo were usually given offices of their own as to keep their exploits organized in some way. Kyousuke had his own, but he usually shared it with Junpei as he usually relayed mission details to him. Junpei himself was merely a B Rank Inquesta despite this, he often spent a lot more of his time doing mission control than actually going out to investigate which was the main reason he was given an office of his own despite his rank.<p>

Due to the need for confidentiality when missions of higher ranking becomes present, several mechanisms are used to only allow those with access to the particular area to enter it. If one was somehow able to enter such a spot without being given the permission, it was simply because the person was _given_ access to it as they may actually help in the mission. Otherwise, the person would be rebuffed rather harshly – and that's on the first offense.

Finding someone stupid enough to do that is rare, and those who could actually get away with it, even rarer. Kyousuke was not proud to admit that he did in fact, done that a few years back – although he couldn't quite remember the circumstances that lead him to doing something so stupid...

As soon as the three of them settled down in Junpei's rather messy office – he at least had the decency to leave the area to which guests would normally seat, clean – Junpei opened his bento and began to chow down while searching something on his computer.

"To put it in perspective, senpai." Junpei said, after taking a drink from his soda. "Your suspicions are correct that your encounter with that white haired pretty boy. That mission was indeed connected to one of your previous mission... but which one it's connected to is up to debate."

Kyousuke raised an eyebrow at this.

"What do you mean?"

"It's just as I said." Junpei replied. "With the sheer amount of classified missions you've participated in, it's hard to say which one it's connected to. In fact, with your previous mission, some of the missions that you and other agents have done might not actually be completed after all."

That – that was alarming.

That would mean that despite the thoroughness that is usually asociated with Busou Tantei, something that looked finished – might have actually been done so to lure them into a state of lull. He had only really thought that his previous mission would have opened the one that he had in mind – a mission that he had felt wasn't complete and had been considered ongoing due to his knowledge on the subject. The fact that it's connected to a lot more... it was understandable that the knowledge would be made confidential and available to those only in higher ranking.

Since Kyousuke usually never interacted or asked about other missions done by other Buteis except a select few, he was rather out of the loop in regards to smaller missions. Which was rather embarrassing given his proficiency in just about a lot of things barring ESP.

But he shouldn't focus on that, he should focus on what he can do for the time being.

"Submit to me an analysis of that in three days, Junpei." Kyousuke said as he turned to Kuroneko. "Kuroneko?"

Kuroneko nodded, as she took out a piece of torn cloth from her bag.

The cloth itself was actually taken from his clothing that he took to his most recent mission. It was a special suit made by Kuroneko herself along with a bit of help from a mutual friend from the ESP group. It had a surprising amount of strength that anything below the strength of a rifle, would harmlessly bounce off. The fact that an enemy could easily cleave through it with a _sword_ no less especially since it was made to withstand all forms of weaponry barring rifle rounds, was a cause for concern.

Kuroneko held her creations in high regard, and more so if it was damaged by something that she had planned to have the clothing in question to withstand. Looking for a justification for why the clothing she had made had failed was top priority as those in the Japanese branch took much of their designs from her.

There was also the fact that she was the one that personally created Kyousuke's work clothes...

"One thing that I can confirm is that the clothing was destroyed in a way that is clearly not normal." Kuroneko started. "The blade that cut through your suit was definitely some sort of specialized weapon, at the very least, it was enchanted."

"Enchanted?" Junpei mumbled, his mouth filled with food. After gulping it down, he turned to Kyousuke. "By the way senpai, you never did tell me who repelled you – I mean, in greater detail."

"Well, I can't really give you much of a description aside from the fact that he was clearly not Japanese." Kyousuke said rubbing his chin as he tried to remember the person that had nearly cleaved him in half on his last mission. The man he had encountered was definitely not one of those run-of-the-mill mercenaries. "His sword was also rather big. Almost taller than he was in fact, and mind you, that man was definitely tall."

"Yeah, you told me about that." Junpei muttered. "But a tall – probably European – man with a long enchanted sword of some sort... if that person had shown up before today, then I can certainly lower the amount of people that could match that description... Kuroneko-san, what exactly was the property of the enchantment and its type?"

There are usually two main types of enchantments. One was the 'cast' type and the 'built' type. The cast type is essentially a type of enchantment that was placed on an object anytime after its creation – this usually meant that it had a deteriorating effect and would often have a time limit before the enchantment had to be recast once again. While 'built' type referred to anything that had the enchantment imbued onto it during creation – the enchantment becoming one with the weapon itself. The latter type are rare mostly due to the fact that 'built' type enchantment has been a lost art. Most 'built' type enchantment items are relics of the past and are often the items from legend.

The fact that they are going against someone that could actually utilize an enchantment (be it 'cast' or 'built) was a cause for concern seeing as this was more verification that the enemy they are up against has been preparing countermeasures against them when most organized crime groups didn't know about them until they were in the brink of collapse. There's also the fact that most users of 'built' type weapons are trained to use it to the fullest of its potential, while those that uses 'cast' type would often have proficiency in using ESP or at the very least have some reserve enchantment when things go downhill.

"It's probably 'built' type, and based on the tear alone... it had the concept of '_cut'_ but cut through what, it's hard to determine." Kuroneko said, a bit frustrated that she couldn't find out anymore. "Although our local enchantress has said that the weapon that made the cut was still 'dormant' otherwise, the trace would have been more clearer."

"Dormant, huh... That's probably why I couldn't sense him until he was bearing down on me." Kyousuke couldn't really add more to that fact since he didn't really cross swords with the man's weapon as he merely avoided it.

'Built' type enchanted items usually have a 'dormant' state and an 'active' state. Although some 'built' type have a weak passive effect even though they're in their dormant state, most of the time it exists so it can be carried around with little problem.

"If it's indeed a 'built' type then there should only be a select few on the world that would match that description." Junpei said nodding to himself. That would only be the case though if the weapon that the man wielded wasn't recently discovered.

Kyousuke nodded appreciatively. If this mission was opening a whole new can of worms, the least he could do was to finish it before the metaphorical worms crawled too far from the can. As such, any information was welcome.

"Oh, right, before I forget," Junpei said as he threw his empty can towards a trash bin. "There's going to be a meeting taking place in the main branch a day or so after new year. The branch supervisor has asked you to come and act as her escort."

"An escort? Couldn't the supervisor ask someone else?" Kyousuke asked sounding a bit irritated at the news.

It wasn't because he was busy at new year as that was still a good four months from now so he still didn't have any plans (and he usually spent most of his time lazing off anyway during those days, as his family usually had plans of their own), but merely because of the fact that with what he had uncovered today, it would be best if he was in standby until everything was resolved. Besides, using him as an escort to a place that is no doubt one of the most secure places in the world with the gathered people seemed extremely unnecessary.

"Don't ask me." Junpei said raising his hands as a show of knowing no more than he did. "Our supervisor said that the main branch had asked for you personally, so she couldn't exactly refuse."

A fair point. But it didn't mean he had to like it. Not to mention the fact that a certain pair would be rather elated to see him in the main branch...

Kyousuke repressed a shiver.

If it was only one person he could handle it, but the fact that there were two and they had different reasons for wanting to see him... no, don't think about it.

"Well if that's all then, I shall take my leave." Kuroneko said as she stood up from her chair, unaware of Kyousuke's inner turmoil.

Shaking himself from his thoughts, Kyousuke glanced at the clock. It was only 6PM, but he had an idea as to why Kuroneko wanted to go early.

It was certainly not because of the dangers of the dark – if anything, those who attempted to do something to her would be decimated without mercy – but because of her siblings that she had to go home early. Unlike Kyousuke's family, Kuroneko's own parents were often away due to work. Thus, she usually took the role of 'parent' to her younger siblings – it was heartwarming, and only went to show how badly Kyousuke's relationship with his own sibling had gone.

"Take care, Kuroneko." Kyousuke said quietly.

Kuroneko paused before she exited the office, she turned her head and gave Kyousuke a small smile.

"The same goes with you senpai. You don't have to do everything by yourself."

Kyousuke grimaced at that, to which Kuroneko took as a sign of confirmation that he understood what she meant and left accordingly.

Although Kyousuke relied on the few friends he had garnered in Busou Tantei, it hadn't always been this way. Kuroneko was probably referring to how he often went alone into missions – solo missions weren't exactly recommended and even in missions where it would be detrimental to its completion, the supervisor usually advised that they bring along a partner. It was something that the supervisor often vocalized whenever he was in her presence.

It was a good thing she wasn't in the base for today. Otherwise she would have no doubt walked in and started insisting again. It didn't help that she would often stop whatever she was doing just to visit him.

"Heh." Junpei smirked at him knowingly. "You know, she's clearly giving you a message."

Kyousuke turned his head away from Junpei and walked towards the door.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

And in all honestly, he really didn't.

Before Kyousuke could step out of the office, Junpei uttered one more thing that made him stop at his tracks.

"By the way, senpai... pay up."

Kyousuke sighed, and slowly turned around.

He really needed to find a way to turn the tables... and how the heck did Junpei know what happened at school today?

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes:<strong>

You know, I said in the last chapter that it would be mostly daily life of Kyousuke for the time being, but then Chaos pointed out that due to my rewrites, some key information was missing. Thus, this chapter was made. Some information however, were purposely left out so it can be explored in later chapters or when it becomes relevant to the story.

This chapter mostly gives an exposition as to how the world works – or more specifically, Kyousuke and Kuroneko's occupation. As I implied in some of my disclaimers, this story would be taking several key points from different stories – and thus, here's a huge bulk of it from Hidan no Aria. The descriptions itself aren't from the actual source, but had been modified to suit my story's needs.

I actually planned to submit this yesterday, but due to some circumstances, I couldn't submit it due to lack of internet access. I didn't actually expect to write something during this month, but with my exams over, I really had no excuse to not write anything before I become busy with the festivities.

Anyway, Merry Christmas!


	7. Lessening the Load

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii wake ga nai or any related works. I also don't own Hidan no Aria and Persona 3 or the characters that may appear from said series. The only thing I do own is the general plot of the story.

* * *

><p>"<em>Haa... Haa..."<em>

_His breath came out in short puffs. His arms burned and his legs were also in the same boat. Bruises were present in just about every visible part of his body and he was even pretty certain that he had a bit of internal bleeding going on from the attacks he had received._

"_I... I can still go on."_

_He couldn't end it here. He wouldn't give up, nor would he allows this to be the end. He had barely lasted a minute and he'd be damned if he lost so pathetically..._

_Yet, why couldn't he land a blow?_

_His opponent was unscathed and was using an unarmed fighting style that left his weapons useless and even his armor impractical._

"_It doesn't seem like that to me." His opponent muttered back. Although there was an approving glint on his opponent's eyes when she had said it._

"_Don't underestimate me."_

_The battle was restarted once more._

* * *

><p>Kyousuke groaned as he met another bad end from the game he was playing. Normally, he would merely shrug and try it another time or even ask Junpei for pointers so he could finish it earlier. Both of those points were actually pretty good ideas and one he'd go with in a heart beat... but today was not a 'normal' playing day.<p>

Actually, if he had it his way, he probably wouldn't be playing the visual novel in the first place.

In any case, any of the choices Kyousuke had was thrown out of the window leaving the only choice of 'continue trying'. If he compared his current situation with a visual novel – like the one he was playing – it would be like having multiple choices that essentially means the same thing, or a cut scene he could do nothing about but watch.

The reasoning to this was obvious.

Kirino, the one who had actually roped him into playing visual novels to have somebody to talk to with her hobbies, was practically breathing down his neck with every progress he made.

"What was that?! The choice was so obvious! Why the heck didn't you choose 'Date Koishi-chan!'"

Due to the fact that Kyouske and Kirino's parents were currently out of the house, Kirino didn't hold back on her reprimand. It was like how certain people would turn on the speakers to the highest extent if no one was there to be bothered by it.

"My hand slipped..."

"You said that the first time."

"I forgot."

"The last bad end was five minutes ago with similar looking choices."

"My eyes were still reeling from the flash."

"Are you even listening to yourself...?"

"I needed to go to the restroom."

"...so you chose to go to an obvious bad end?"

"I – I was tired...?"

With the things going on recently focus was hard to come by. He had actually forgotten that Kirino was going to supervise his gaming time today so she could get some feedback – but it really made no difference seeing as he had wanted to sleep in today.

This obviously meant he wasn't in any condition to think about smart ways to appease Kirino at his apparent failure... and distinguishing real life choices with game choices.

Why the heck did the choices have 'Go and sleep in'? That's what he wanted to do today!

"Tired, huh?"

Back again, was that dangerous tone that made Kyousuke sweat. Even in his tired state, he could immediately tell when he had accidentally stepped into a land mine.

"Uhh... what I mean to say is, don't you get tired of talking about a game to a newbie like me? I mean, wouldn't you rather talk to someone that has relatively the same experience as you?"

Kirino turned away from him her expression turning blank.

"No..."

"You don't have any friends at school or work that watches and plays games together with you?"

"That's none of your business."

Kyousuke frowned as he turned the chair around to face his sister.

Actually, he had expected such an answer. After all, he couldn't see Kirino putting so much effort in trying to have him gain an appreciation of the things she liked. The way she talked about it so passionately whenever she got into one of those moods... it was like a dam had burst, and every time she would talk about her hobbies so animatedly the same thing would occur. There were no small trickles or a faucet that controlled the flow, the pressure would continually build – so when she found someone she could confide in, it all changed.

Kyousuke knew that Kirino had friends – watching over her sister during one of her modeling jobs had him learn of two friends that also went to the same school. The two were also people she would frequently hang out with even outside of work and school. But even mere glances alone, he could tell that they weren't the kind to watch children mahou shoujo anime or even play games centered on little sisters.

Until recently, he had thought that Kirino was just like those girls. More focused about girl stuff than anything like what he had witnessed.

"Then... forget about school and work. Do you have any friends that you can freely talk about things, like games and anime?"

"...I said that's none of your business."

That was the closest Kyousuke could really get to a 'no' from Kirino in regards to the question he was asking her.

Although he had a vague suspicion before, it was only becoming clear to him now why Kirino had wanted him to play. It was not to humiliate him due to his obvious failures (at least to Kirino's eyes), nor was it to find someone that would give her feedback that coincides or verify something she had seen.

It was a hobby she enjoyed – but something she hid due to the stigma that those who had such hobbies would face. Yet despite this, it was lonely if there was no one to share her joys with.

Kyousuke had thought that he would have been able to make Kirino happy if he had simply gone along with her whims...

"What? Are you looking down at me?"

"Of course not."

…but that didn't seem to be the case. She would never admit it of course, so it was up to him to suggest something.

Kyousuke knew he didn't have the 'fortitude' to keep this up, and if he was always the target of the dam, he might not always be able to stand up to the torrent that would come up. Eventually, he might make a mistake that would create an even greater rift between him and Kirino.

And, well... he wanted to get his sleep time back. If she had friends to keep her entertained, then he might just get the sleep he had so wanted.

"Kirino."

If he was more lucid and didn't look like he was going to fall to the floor asleep if he ever lies down on it, he thought that he would have looked like one of those adult men giving advice to a kohai or someone younger than them.

"Let's make friends."

Kirino gave him an expression that basically said 'what is this idiot saying?'

Although in hindsight, her expression was quite justified given Kyousuke's current state of sleepiness.

Spinning the chair he was sitting on one full revolution in hopes of waking himself up a little. Although all it really did was make him dizzy... and more sleepy.

"Whoa, dizzy... Gimme a sec."

He needed to sound convincing here. It was fine to look rather unmotivated (or in this case, sleepy) when he had declared his intention a moment ago, but for him to drive the point home and to properly convince, Kirino he needed to make this look legitimate. Or at the very least, make it sound like he believed it.

After all, it's not like he actually went out to find people who shared his love of sleep.

With that thought in mind, Kyousuke punched himself.

"Kyousuke?!"

"I – I'm alright."

Technically he wasn't, judging by the angry red mark left on his cheeks by his punch, but it was enough to get himself out of his sleepy state.

"A-anyway, I'm initiating a life counsel session so sit on your bed."

"Huh?"

"Didn't you ask me before to give you advice regarding your predicament? I didn't have any useful advice before, but I do now. So sit on your bed."

Kirino didn't look all too happy at being commanded, but she followed and sat at the bed.

Well, even if she did have that rebellious look on her, she still was willing to listen to what he had to say.

"My advice... well, it's to make friends."

"Friends...?"

Kyousuke nodded as he leaned back on the chair he was sitting on.

"Yes. They have to be ones that have similar hobbies like yours. That way, you can talk freely about stuff like anime and games or even stuff with M18 ranking. Of course, they won't look down on you seeing as they have the same hobbies."

"So you mean... make otaku friends?"

"Yeah."

Kirino bit her lip. It seemed she was hesitant – he couldn't really blame her since the answer was rather obvious and he was pretty sure she had thought of the idea before.

Now that his suggestion was in place, the 'convincing' part of the conversation was next.

"I don't... want any otaku friends. If I'm seen together with them... I'll be considered the same as them."

"True," Kyousuke conceded. "But aren't you one yourself?"

"I – I'm not..."

She stuttered. It was obvious that even she couldn't convince herself that she's not one given the very thing that she loved was within the room, present for all to see – at least, for the mean time.

"Let me guess, image, right?"

She nodded, apparently quite surprised that he had managed to pin point so quickly why she was so hesitant. It was obvious really, it was for that reason why he had known that Kirino had not actually created her own set of otaku friends. She was a model – her friends were models, and her classmate would no doubt put her on a pedestal given her talents. The Public Image she had cultivated was no doubt something she cherished, almost the same way she cherished her secret hobby.

Kirino wouldn't be Kirino if both sides of her personality wasn't present. It was like the public and private sides were the two faces of the same coin – they could never coexist together, but it still makes up the person called 'Kirino' as Kirino is the coin herself.

Kyousuke didn't quite care about the image he had in public – his friends, although not knowing about the true extent of why he was often tired or sometimes, why he was _skipping_ class, didn't quite care about the image he had to the student body. They knew him, and that's all that mattered. It didn't matter what anyone else thought.

But he was more of an exception to the rule rather than an example of it. In Politics, having a good public image and relations were as important as the job itself. In today's society, people are so concerned about their image that anything alien is attacked... this was even present in middle school and high school.

"Then, why don't you keep such friends secret, like the way you keep your hobbies secret?"

Like the way that Kirino had segregated her public image and friends to one side of the coin, Kirino could always segregate a new set of friends to the other side of the coin.

"How's that? Do you have any solutions?"

And there goes the last vestiges of pain. He was starting to feel really sleepy now.

"None at the moment."

"Geez, you're really useless."

Kyousuke couldn't really refute that given his current state.

"I..." He paused to stifle a yawn. Damn, it was only four in the afternoon. "I'll think of something. Just leave it to me."

"Right..."

He really didn't look that convincing, but hey, it's not like he didn't have a 'back-up' processor to think things for him when his own processor was too busy thinking of anything.

* * *

><p>"...Then how about she participate in one of those offline meetings?"<p>

Manami suggested to him.

After he had escaped from his sister's room, he flipped open his phone as he closed the door. He didn't dare go sit or even lie down by his bed... he might close his eyes, and that would be the end of it.

"An offline meeting?"

"Yes, an offline meeting. It's when people who became friends through the internet come and meet up... to have fun, I guess?"

It was clear Manami had never been a part of said offline meeting. Well, it's not like he had ever been part of one either.

That said, Manami really sounded a granny back there. She said 'offline meeting' in a strange way.

"Huh, have you ever used the internet, Manami?"

Whenever they did research or studying it was often done in the public library, it was much easier to search things online given the way technology had progressed, but he had thought that they were using the library as to get accurate and reliable information. Maybe that wasn't the case?

"Of course I can... Grrr... Kyou-chan, are you thinking I'm stupid or something?"

Heh, Manami's growling sounded rather cute.

"Well... there's this impression that elderly people aren't too good with modern technology..."

"I'm 17, a young and shining high school girl!"

Kyousuke covered the receiver as he stifled a laugh. He can almost imagine her in tears on the other side of the line.

"Seriously, Kyou-chan! If you don't quit it, I'll get mad. *rage*"

Do people even say 'rage' to get their anger across with a phone? It was like people saying 'rofl', 'lmao' or even '=)' in actual conversation...

"Well, I'm sorry..." Kyousuke finally said after reigning in his laughter, although it really didn't sound convincing. "But do you even have a PC? You know, one that's yours?"

He had no doubt that Manami's little brother had one, given the fact that Manami knew about offline meetings.

"Uu~... No... but, I can still use the internet normally!"

She seemed really desperate to convince him. Although it was hard to believe given the fact that Manami said 'internet' rather oddly.

"Any experience with offline meetings? And I don't mean you, I mean your brother."

"It seems like he has. He went to an online meeting for some community called, 'RnB'... Err, Kyou-chan, do you know anything about Social Networking Services?"

"SNS? I've heard about it. It's where you make profile pages about your hobbies and write something up to make friends and all, right?"

Although Kyousuke knew a lot more than Manami did in terms of modern stuffs like internet and computers, it didn't mean he was aware of just about everything like Social Networking or Offline Meetings. Oh, he knew about SNS seeing as he had asked Junpei to hack a few accounts when a lead presented itself, but he never did participate in one, so he could never be quite sure about the information he had.

"Yes, there's a famous one like MiXi. The one my brother uses has no age restriction though. I guess this might be a good way to find friends outside of school."

Well, that pretty much confirmed what he had to do now.

"All right. Thanks for the insight, Manami."

"You're welcome. Haha... see you tomorrow in the usual place~"

Shutting his phone, Kyousuke was about to head towards Kirino's room when his phone rang.

Raising an eyebrow, he checked the caller ID and found it to be from his kouhai, Gokou Ruri. It had only been a few days since their last meeting, so what could she want...?

"Hello?"

"Good afternoon senpai."

The voice was unmistakable. It was definitely Kuroneko.

"Is there something wrong?"

Although he really didn't want to link the few friends he had made in Busou Tantei to 'trouble', it couldn't be helped given that most Butei agents tended to interact with each other due to work. Secrecy was a big part of Busou Tantei which was why each Butei had an 'area' that they normally oversee when they weren't in a mission. Too many agents in a single area could raise suspicion.

Exceptions existed of course, Kuroneko could freely go into his territory and likewise so could he. Although if a mission suddenly begins within the vicinity, then either of them would need to alert the other or submit a report once the threat had been dealt with.

"Nothing at the moment, but I was hoping you could pass a message to Iori-san that I won't be present in the meeting this coming Sunday."

"Meeting?"

"I'll be skipping the meeting for an... extracurricular investigation. The investigation may yield nothing, but it's best to keep everything covered."

"Do you need any help?" Kyousuke asked frowning.

Extracurricular Investigation was merely a term that referred to an investigation that happens to take place during a normal event that a particular agent participates in. Whether it's due to circumstances, such investigations were rare and posed little risk unless a new entity intruded into the investigation. These investigations was merely an observational investigation rather than actively looking for clues.

That said, one couldn't really be sure about that when the one doing the investigation is part of the Interrogation group of Busou Tantei where mere conversations could suddenly turn into a confession.

"While I appreciate the concern senpai, it's called an extracurricular investigation for a reason." Kuroneko briefly gave a quiet laugh. "Furthermore, it's a girls only event."

"Uh... right." Kyousuke muttered uneasily. "Is there anything else?"

"Your new uniform will be ready by Monday, so you may pick it up by then."

Despite the word 'may', Kuroneko might have as well said it as 'pick it up for your safety'. As missions that Kyousuke was normally involved in would require at least a partner to accomplish, his only safety net would be his own skills and the materials he brings along.

For someone with a ranking like him, he could be sent in a mission within a moment's notice.

"I will."

Exchanging farewells, Kyousuke cut the connection and sent a quick message to Junpei. He never knew the reason why Kuroneko never bothered to give her number to Junpei or anyone else for that matter, with the exception of her supervisor, the Japanese Branch enchanter and himself. Although if it was Junpei only, he could probably guess where she's coming from.

Kyousuke was pretty sure that most of the female Butei members had placed Junpei's ordinary number on their block list.

Putting the phone on silent – if Junpei had any complaints, then he could tell him later – Kyousuke exited his room and headed for his sister's room.

Knocking on the door, Kyousuke waited a moment before his sister's head peeked out and motioned him in.

Now that he thought about it, this was the fourth time he had ever entered Kirino's room. Before the events that had allowed him to know of Kirino's interests, he had never seen a glimpse of Kirino's room nor did he ever dream of the fact that Kirino herself would be the one inviting him in.

If someone told him he was called by Kirino into her room over a month ago, he would have probably looked at the person like they were crazy.

"Sorry for the wait Kirino. I just found a way for you to make otaku friends."

For some reason however, Kirino clicked her tongue and snubbed him.

"Liar. You just asked Ms. Plain."

"Don't call her Ms. Plain! That may be the best word to describe her, but I'm the only one allowed to badmouth her!"

"Why are you getting so mad?"

Noticing the look that Kirino sent his way, he took a deep breath to regulate his feelings.

"Anyway, don't say that I'd be willing to give stern chastisement should anyone insult her even if that was you."

"Yeah, yeah..."

Kyousuke frowned. Kirino was rather alright when he had left the room so what had caused her expression to sour?

"Kirino. Do you hate Manami?"

"No, not really. It's just that, I don't know much about her."

Naturally, Manami was his childhood friend after all. Even in the few times that Manami had come home to help him study and finish homework that he had yet to complete, at most, the two would merely catch a glimpse of one another. Although starting a year or two ago, he had relegated most of his study and hang out sessions into Manami's house due to the ever increasing things that screamed 'suspicious' hidden within his room.

Due to that, Kyousuke wasn't that surprised that Kirino didn't know much about her. Although the reverse would also hold true since Manami hadn't even recognized Kirino the last time they had passed by each other.

It was odd really, Manami's personality made it hard to hate her so why...?

"I don't like how she's... all over you."

"...you lost me."

It was like the time Junpei had commented that most girls he had ever gotten to know seemed to be all over him. What did that exactly mean?

In any case, if they continued further into this discussion, another large gap might result and he certainly didn't want that.

"Now Kirino, it doesn't matter whose advice it is, right? So just hear it out."

"Alright then, so what is it?"

Even though she said that, she still looked hesitant.

Quickly giving a short repeat of what he and Manami had discussed, Kirino still had a rather hesitant look.

"You don't like the idea...?"

"It's not that..."

Kirino bit her lip and looked down, mulling over it for a few seconds. Once she had finally decided she looked up into Kyousuke's eyes.

"...Okay, I'll do it."

There was something odd with the look she briefly sent his way. He couldn't really identify it, but it felt like something he _should_ have recognized.

"First things first then, we need to find something you can join. We can't really use MiXi since it's by invitation only so we'll have to look for a special SNS that caters to those who love anime and games, so we need one without invitation."

Kirino nodded absently as she took out her cellphone and began to type at alarming speeds. It was rather fast, but Junpei could type much faster whenever he was playing/programming a game.

Watching over his sister's shoulder as she finally found a forum she wanted to join, she paused for a moment seeing as she needed to create a profile first.

"It seems to be asking you for a nickname."

He didn't know all the details, but some sites often had the nickname be the same as the user's username. In this case however, it seems to be a bit different where the username was separate from the user's nickname. He supposed it made sense that Kirino would pause and think this through, after all she hadn't planned to create an account today so creating one that you wouldn't entirely be ashamed about would take some time.

Eventually, Kirino settled for 'Kiririn'.

"W-woah... you wrote 14 in the age section but you wrote 'hentai games (little sister genre)' in your hobbies... isn't that bad?"

"But I'm not lying, right? If it was my classmate or model friends that invited me, I wouldn't write stuff like this in my profile."

Kyousuke supposed that was true. He would actually be rather flabbergasted if he saw any of his female classmate write that as a profile description. He would be hard pressed to see said female classmate in the same light again. Furthermore, being entirely truthful should attract the ones that Kirino would like to interact with...

But it was because of that truthfulness that had Kyousuke worrying.

"You seem troubled Kirino."

"Because..."

She hesitated for a moment. She had done as he had asked but she wore a worried expression. One that seemed to match what had clicked into his own head when Kirino had written her profile description.

"Well... you see, I'm afraid of socializing... You see, since I'm looking for people with the same kind of hobbies most of them would probably be much older than me and be male. It's not that I'm looking down at them or anything nor am I hating them... but you see? I'm a little afraid."

"I see."

It wasn't simply finding a group of people that shared her hobbies, it was also finding people within the same age group and gender... with how _unique_ Kirino's hobby is, it would be hard to find anyone that matched that sort of description.

"Well, let's try searching for women only groups of any kind... even if the chances are slim, we still have to try."

Searching different communities one by one, they eventually found a community that seemed promising. Kyousuke would have been more suspicious given that it actually matched the seemingly impossible parameters, but he wasn't all too aware of the otaku community to make any accurate judgment.

"How about... this one?"

"Hmm... you mean this one?"

"Yes. Oh wow, they do exist look... Well, why don't you go look inside?"

Apparently the community was called 'All Together, Otaku Girls'. It seems to be around 20 members in size, but it didn't really tell Kyousuke anything if it was a large group or a small group. Although comparing it to real life hobby groups, it certainly fit the size. Typically, there was an entrance requirement of sorts where an applicant would send their age and gender to the administrator of the group. Without the administrator's approval, one couldn't be called a member and certain things within the community was invisible to anyone not a member.

What made the community sell it to him, was the fact that they had a meeting called a 'tea party'. If he had to guess, it was probably a an offline party of sorts. Even if there were men masquerading as women in the online community, there's no way they would go to the offline party as they would undoubtedly be loathed by those who were truly female.

"Hey, Kirino... do you think this one would be alright?"

"Uh huh... yes."

Kirino sounded reluctant making Kyousuke frown.

"Now what? Is there something wrong?"

"It's not like that but..."

"Then why don't you write a message saying you want to join? There's the button right there."

Kirino nodded, before biting her lip.

She really looked like she was having a hard time deciding whether to go through with it or not. It's not like Kyousuke couldn't understand what she was going through, but comparing it to the first time that he had participated in an Assault mission in butei seemed a bit overkill...

Maybe that's why he saw Kirino's hesitation as something unnecessary? After all, compared to a life and death situation over a potential embarrassing meeting it seemed that feeling nervous for something like the latter was completely stupid.

"What should I write for my message?"

"Just be honest and add that you want female friends with the same hobby."

Kirino nodded once more, typing in her cellphone with that unbelievable speed of hers.

"Done."

Somehow, when Kirino had said the word 'done', Kyousuke felt a sense of melancholy and satisfaction. Satisfaction, since he had actually provided the help that his sister had asked for, and melancholy due to the fact that this practically ended the life counseling sessions which provided a link between him and his sister.

In the past few weeks, Kyousuke had obtained several years worth of conversation with his sister. Even if the conversations were often rather insulting and mostly talking about her hobbies, it was a conversation nonetheless.

"Okay, this should do it. I just have to wait for a response."

"I hope it goes well."

"...Yes!"

Kirino nodded. Invoking a small smile from Kyousuke.

Regardless, despite the fact that Kyousuke had lead everything up to this point, it didn't quite mean he was out of the woods yet. Until the time Kirino has made genuine friends to whom she can share her hobbies, Kyousuke would remain by her side.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes:<strong>

Sorry for the late update, but like I said before college is making my updates rather sporadic... even if the chapter was easy to write by virtue of it being from canon.

Not much to say here besides the fact that we'll finally have the Akihibara trip next chapter. I've already planned things out so to speak, so expect the chapter to be out in the next month or so.

By the way the comment that said Manami had uttered something oddly, you'd be able to get this if you have a passing knowledge of the Japanese language.


	8. Unawareness

"_Impressive."_

_A woman, one that had supervised his training for the last seven months, noted as she scanned over the latest reports regarding his recent excursions._

_It was his first B Rank mission, and a solo one at that, but he had done it flawlessly._

"_I would like to say that this is talent, but that would merely do insult to the work you've done in the last few months."_

"_I just did what had to be done." He muttered quietly, albeit a little quickly._

"_Indeed."_

_It didn't need to be said._

"_That aside, you haven't been neglecting things have you?" She asked, giving him an odd stare._

_If he had been more aware, he would have realized it was the same stare that a mother would give a child when expecting them to come clean with something._

"_Neglecting things? What do you mean?"_

_The woman gave a soft sigh._

"_Your friends... your family."_

_The words sent an arrow through his heart and a slight ache in his head formed as he recalled._

* * *

><p>"Alright, that's enough Kyousuke."<p>

Placing the last few boxes down by the storage shed under his teacher's supervision, he heaved a small sigh of relief after finally finishing his 'detention' with his teacher.

Despite having received no missions for the last two weeks or so, Kyousuke had made it a point to visit the Busuo Tantei Japanese branch at least once every three days to check if there were any leads he could come across.

That, would have been no problem if it weren't for the fact that he often did these excursions when his parents and sister were sound asleep... which was actually pretty difficult since Kirino was often quite busy playing her games at night if the light within her room whenever he left the house was any indication.

Due to said excursions (along with being forced to finish the eroge he couldn't complete last night), he found himself sleeping in class once again. It would probably not have happened if he actually got to 'sleep in' the moment he had arrived home yesterday.

Well, it's partly his fault anyway for the over compulsive need to get a mystery done and over with. If his previous mission didn't shed so much light in regards to previous records, he'd probably be able to rest easy at night. Although he was pretty sure that Junpei could obtain more information than him given that he was mostly within Busou Tantei branch office, giving him access to a lot of tools to lengthen one's search.

Kyousuke could do the same, but he didn't like spending_ too_ much time in the branch. His nightly visits were enough as it is.

"Do I need to do this again tomorrow, sensei?"

Kyousuke's teacher shook his head.

"Not unless you fall asleep in my class again."

"...sorry about that."

The words easily flowed out of Kyousuke's lips. It held no sincerity, but were merely said to give a polite reply to the one being talked to. While school was indeed important to an extent, his attentiveness was more important in the missions he received in Busou Tantei – so if he could gain a bit of energy through sleeping in class, then so be it.

It was probably due to this tone, that his teacher didn't believe quite believe his apology like the many times he had apologized during these 'sessions'.

"I would believe you if you actually start putting more effort in staying awake. Even your friend, Kouhei, can stay awake in my class."

Kyousuke nearly laughed. Something that his teacher noticed.

"I know." The teacher said with a wry grin. "He isn't exactly focused in my class, but at the very least he does attempt to listen every now and then."

"Sorry, sensei. I'll try to keep the comparison in mind whenever I'm feeling sleepy again." Kyousuke replied with a bit more sincerity than before.

"I suppose that's the most I can get. Now go back to the classroom and pick up your bag. I'll lock up the shed."

Complying with his teacher's request, Kyousuke hurriedly went back to the school building.

This had been the fourth detention he had this month. Cumulatively, he had garnered a total of 28 detentions, most of which were caused by falling asleep in class. Normally, this would have been enough to garner the attention of the faculty and his parents, but thankfully someone in Busou Tantei was doing damage control for his sake.

Of course, they did tend to remind him to avoid getting into situations where people might start digging for information as to why he was falling asleep in class or why he often 'forgot' to submit homework that it's almost expected of him.

Although judging by the fact that their requests hadn't really been taken note of and the lack of follow up, meant that they couldn't really do anything given that he took risks in a near monthly basis – and solo at that.

Upon reaching the classroom door, he found Manami waiting for him.

"Have you been waiting here all this time?"

"No, I just finished what I had to do in my club so I decided to wait here. I haven't been waiting for long."

"Hmm... If you say so."

It was hard to be convinced with Manami's words given that club activities had all but ended thirty minutes ago. Only sports club tended to extend and some other clubs if an event regarding them was coming up, but Kyousuke knew that there were no club events coming up and Manami was definitely not part of any sports club.

"Anyway, why were you waiting for me Manami?"

"Did you forget already?" Manami said, fixing him with a rather cute glare.

"Forget...? Oh, yeah... 'tomorrow' is today, huh."

"Really..." Manami huffed. "It was a good thing that I came by to pick you up."

"Sorry about that... I've been rather occupied lately."

Not to mention he was rather sleepy when he came to converse with Manami yesterday.

"No worries then."

If there was one thing that Kyousuke liked about Manami – aside from her rather extreme 'normality' – was the aura of calm and ease of acceptance that Manami had on just about anything. Kyousuke wouldn't be surprised if Manami was ever to find out about his job as a Busou Tantei member, she would merely take it in stride and offer sound advice.

Not that he'd ever tell her that of course.

"But for forgetting, I want you to help me with something."

Even though Manami was justified in her request, something within Kyousuke's gut was telling him that whatever it was that Manami would be requesting, was something that he would no doubt regret. It was the same gut feeling that told him whenever a mission was compromised before Junpei told him of it.

He did not like that feeling.

"What is it?"

Kyousuke tried hard not to stammer, although he was pretty sure his tone gave him away.

If Manami had noticed it, she didn't mention it. Instead, her smile only grew wider.

"Shopping!"

There it was. The one word that males of different ethnicity would agree to be the most 'dreaded' when coming from a girl's mouth. If it weren't for the fact that said males were indeed 'males', running when confronted by such a scenario would have been the first action that any of them would have done.

Kyousuke didn't flinch physically, but his mind was already trying to find ways of getting out of this predicament.

He had only gone shopping with a girl thrice in his whole life.

The first time was due to his supervisor – he had naively thought of it as a training exercise... the following training session he had with his supervisor was five times more excruciating than normal.

The second time was with Kuroneko – it was about a year after they first met each other, but the shopping was as painful as the first – especially to his wallet.

He still had no idea how Kuroneko convinced him to pay for the clothing and materials she bought.

The third time was with Manami; Kyousuke had thought that it wouldn't be as bad as the first two times seeing as the other two were part of Busou Tantei and were thus, different from the norm. After all, Manami was the epitome of normality. It couldn't possibly be that bad...

Then the day came.

Kyousuke's point of view in shopping was forever altered when girls were involved.

It was due to said 'incidents', that despite thinking at such an accelerated pace to get out of his predicament, his mouth could only echo the word that he dreaded.

"Shopping?"

"Yes!" Manami said cheerfully, ignoring the look of horror passing by Kyousuke's face and began pulling on his arms. "You gave good advice in what clothes to wear last time so I'm asking for your help once again."

Was Manami being purposely oblivious here?

* * *

><p>"Thanks for the help, Kyou-chan!"<p>

"Ah, ha, ha, yeah... It's no problem."

Kyousuke wanted to say that it was indeed a problem, but he'd rather not dampen Manami's mood now when she was like this.

Although there was an odd feeling that she had been waiting for such an opportunity to trap him to doing her bidding.

"Why don't you come inside and have dinner with us? It's pretty late isn't it?"

The street lamps had already turned on and the remaining sunlight was quickly disappearing from the horizon – it was actually surprising that they reached Manami's home before sunlight had finally faded.

"Tempting... but my parents are out tonight and would probably be home tomorrow so I've got to man the house just in case Kirino isn't home."

It wasn't like Kirino would tell him ahead of time if she was going to a sleep over. Chances are, she'd probably give a message to their parents but it might take a while for them to realize that Kirino had indeed sent a message given their destination for the night.

Which he'd rather not think about.

"Is that so?"

"In any case, I'd best get going before your grandparents realize I'm here."

Manami forced a laugh at that.

Even she could see how overbearing her grandparents are and the teasing can sometimes get a bit over the top.

"You know, you never did answer why you're so good at giving fashion advice."

"An answer, huh?"

It was surprising for a boy to be good in giving such advice unless they had an interest, or had... questionable intent upon choosing a set of clothing for a female. Although the latter was impossible given that Kyousuke's advice was well within Manami's comfort zone and had more or less accentuated her own natural charms.

Well, if Kyousuke was to be brutally honest, it would probably be due to the fact that not only was his sister part of the fashion industry by being part of a modeling firm, but his own Kouhai, Kuroneko, was well versed with sewing given that it was another way for her to make a living.

"I suppose you could say I'm surrounded by those with good fashion tastes." Kyousuke muttered quietly, unsure and uncaring of whether Manami heard his words. If she could figure out that it was solely his sister that would be fine, after all, Manami didn't know of his connections with Kuroneko. "Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow."

Waving good bye, Kyousuke dragged his weary body home.

It was a tiring day. That much was for certain.

Despite the fact that he had done more physically straining tasks before, shopping always seemed to drain him faster than anything Kyousuke could think of possible.

Was there a trick to it? The girls seemed to be immune to that particular backlash... was it possible that the gender known as 'female' had an ability that made the physically straining task that is 'shopping' completely nullified?

Nah.

...although Kyousuke was tempted to think that there was something more to it that made it so straining. Maybe it was the interactions between him and the one shopping? The girls that he had shopped with would often ask for his advice, and he often felt like a deer caught in headlights before forcing himself to calm down – much like how he did in a particularly dangerous mission.

Whenever a girl would ask for his advice, he would often compare it to defusing a ticking time bomb. In either case, one had limited time and limited options. As there were a lot of item within a particular shop, it just meant that there was a lot more 'wrong wires' but that also meant that there exist, at the very least, more than one 'correct wires'.

Answering it objectively had nearly gotten him killed when his supervisor had asked for his advice when they had gone shopping – although Kyousuke would say 'nearly' it was more of an eye contact that promised pain and misery should he continue analyzing things objectively in terms of practicality.

Kyousuke shivered.

Even thinking of it sent a chill down his spine.

It was due to that line of thinking, that he was caught off guard by what happened next.

"OOF!"

Reacting quickly, Kyousuke extended his hand out and grabbed hold of the person whom he had bumped with.

"S-sorry about that, I was lost in thought."

Kyousuke apologized to the old man he had bumped with. Judging by the papers that fell by the wayside, due to the collision he would have immediately pegged the person in question to be a researcher of some sort. The old man certainly looked like one – if it weren't for the fact that the old man seemed to be wearing a Hawaiian vacationer clothing.

Now that Kyousuke thought about it, the old man didn't look like a local either and looked more like a European of some sort. He couldn't quite see the finer details given that the lighting in the area they had collided in was a form of blind spot between two lamp posts.

The old man, for his part, didn't exactly seemed to be put off by the collision nor did he have an understanding expression that an overly kind grandparent would have, throughout this whole time, the old man had been keeping eye contact with him. It was an unreadable expression, but one that left a feeling of unease.

"It's alright." The man whispered. "I had also been lost in thought."

Once the old man had stood up at his own two feet without looking like he was going to fall, Kyousuke immediately went out to retrieve the papers that the old man had dropped.

Due to the dim light Kyousuke couldn't quite make out what he was picking up, although based on the few pictures he could recognize, it seems to be some sort of paper done by engineers. Even with his limited knowledge of mechanics, Kyousuke could at least recognize – albeit vaguely – a large circuit diagram.

For some reason however, it seemed quite familiar... yet he couldn't tell why.

"Here's the papers."

"...thank you, young man."

The way that the words 'thank you' was delivered, it seemed... unnatural? Maybe the old man wasn't used to using the Japanese language? It certainly seemed that way at first glance.

"It's no problem."

Parting ways with the old man, Kyousuke missed the eerie grin that the man sent his way as he turned at the corner.

* * *

><p>"I'm home..."<p>

With as much energy as a soldier retreating to the bunkers after a whole day in the front lines, Kyousuke dragged his mentally and physically tired body up the stairs.

Kyousuke didn't really expect any reply.

His mother was probably coming back from the convenience store for tonight's dinner, and his father would be home at some point either before his mother arrived or after it. Due to the fact that the house lights were already on before he even entered it merely implied that his sister was home.

It would be wishful thinking on Kyousuke's part if he expected his sister to greet him like good little sisters would.

Heading to the fridge, Kyousuke noted the ingredients within before taking the carton of barley tea out to have a drink.

Judging by the limited supply, Kyousuke figured he couldn't make anything for dinner that wasn't curry and that wasn't even taking into the fact that there was next to no meat within the fridge that could sate the hunger of two teenagers.

Really, the only 'good' food that his own mother could cook was curry. While that wasn't bad, the fact remained that having it too often can get quite tiring. The one time that Kyousuke had asked her to experiment cooking different dishes had ended in disaster.

Although that wasn't to say that she wasn't trying – it was just slow progress.

He sighed.

He could have at least asked Manami for a portion of their dinner, but he really didn't want to meet with her grandparents after what he had just gone through.

"Looks like it's going to be take out today."

Placing the carton back into the fridge after phoning a local restaurant, Kyousuke headed up the stairs.

Before he could even enter his room, a hand grabbed onto his wrist.

"Huh? Kirino?"

"Come to my room for a moment."

Without even waiting for a reply, Kirino headed into her room.

Shaking his head, he dropped his bag and followed her into her room. Although he was tired, he could at least hear his sister out.

Although if she's going to make him play a game again, he'd have to decline.

"What is it?"

Kyousuke merely entered the room and stood by the door. It would be presumptuous of him if he used any of the possible places to sit or lie down without Kirino's express permission... well it certainly felt that way, but he hadn't received proof of the contrary.

"Over here." Kirino called, motioning towards the open screen on her PC.

Walking carefully towards where Kirino was pointing to, Kyousuke immediately noticed that it was a reply from the administrator of the group 'Get Together, Otaku Girls'.

Apparently, the administrator goes by the name of 'Saori'.

"_Nice to hear from you, Kiririn-sama. I am 'Saori', the administrator of the community 'Get Together Otaku Girls'. Please allow me to get straight to the point. Thank you for sending in the entry application letter for our community. We gladly accept it. We will surely become great friends, since our ages and hobbies are similar. If you'd like, we'd be pleased if you participated in the tea party we are planning to have in a few days. We hope to have a nice chat with you. I hope for a good response. We wish you the best."_

"So the nickname 'Saori-san', eh? Hmm... this person seems really well mannered."

Due to the refined writing and the name 'Saori', Kyousuke envisioned the young woman he had interacted with during that fiasco in Osaka... but Kyousuke found it quite impossible seeing as that woman couldn't possibly be an otaku.

Probably.

By now, Kyousuke realized that Kirino was looking at him with disgust.

"Disgusting... what are you smiling about?"

Kyousuke ignored the barb.

"No, it's nothing like that. It just seems that this person is rather refined."

Even Kirino had to agree to that.

"Well... somewhat. She seems to be a high class, good mannered lady type? I can't imagine one. We don't have that in our class."

Kyousuke already knew that. The type that Kirino often hanged out with were often rather showy, somewhat like those popular girls one sees in TV. They certainly didn't give the aura of an easy to approach group of people.

"So you're joining?"

"Y-yes... I will."

Kirino seemed hesitant again. Although the primary concern was already averted given that this community was made for women only (and at similar ages at that), there was still something bothering her. Given Kirino's disposition, asking her what's her problem wouldn't really yield anything.

"Is there anything else that you need?"

Kyousuke ventured.

Asking her what's wrong would probably yield nothing, but asking her what else he could do might do the trick.

For whatever reason, Kirino seemed to redden as she looks away.

"...with me." She muttered.

"Haa?"

"I - I said... -ith me."

"Umm, Kirino can you speak up? I can't really hear you."

"..."

"Kirino?"

"I said 'come with me'! Are you both deaf and stupid?!"

How did stupid come into the discussion?

"W-wait, but this is a girls-only event, right? How do you expect me to go there?"

There was one thought that went into mind, but there's no way he was able to or willing to pull it off.

"Why don't you cross dress?"

Woah... she actually suggested it.

"I won't! Don't say it so simply! If they found out, I'd be known as a perverted dude who took such a risk just to participate in an offline girl's meeting!"

Regardless, if he ever did such a thing, it'd be known in the Busou Tantei branches so fast, that it would practically be an international phenomenon!

"It's fine, I've considered those risks."

"That's only your risk!" Kyousuke took a deep breath to calm down, before continuing in a more even tone. "Besides, if I cross dress they'll find out in an instant."

While he wasn't overly muscular, his training and the things he do in Busou Tantei made sure that he wasn't lacking in the muscle department.

"Oh yes... that's true."

It looks like Kirino understood the situation. Then...

"Why weren't you born with good looks?"

...she threw a curve ball.

"That hurts! Out of all the insults you've thrown my way that hurt the most! Quit looking at me like you're watching something pitiful. Immediately!"

"All right, then... We'll use a more normal method."

"...you know, you're making it sound like I was begging you to have me along. Well? Let's hear it."

"How about I send 'Saori'-san a message now, saying that someone I know desperately wants to go to a girl filled tea party and keeps begging me. I pity him too much, so I ask her if I could take him along."

"I think you just raised my level from a 'sneaky pervert', to a 'proud and grand pervert'. And in case you didn't realize it, that's not a good thing."

Even if Kyousuke were to agree, he had no doubts that this 'Saori' person would decline seeing as it's a 'girls-only meeting'. Not only that, it would ruin the mood completely for the other comers. After all, it wouldn't be a stretch that those part of the groups also had the same reservations that Kirino had in regards to going to a general community.

"Then what are you going to do?" Kirino asked fixing a glare his way.

"Well, the cafe that this meeting is taking place in... it isn't fully booked just for this meeting, right? So I'll just sit nearby. I won't be participating, but I'll be watching over you."

He wasn't entirely sure if Kirino was going to agree, and was ready for more barbs.

"All right. That will do."

For some reason though, Kirino was oddly obedient.

In a way, Kirino's actions were uncharacteristic of her. She always exuded a sense of independence, so it was odd that Kirino was pushing him to come along.

What did that mean exactly?

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes:<strong>

I honestly expected to have the Akihibara trip to be finished in this chapter, but when I started writing it, I started expanding certain parts for future developments.

Oh, and I do have a question to those more aware of the Ore no Imouto light novel than I am - what are the names of Manami's grandparents?

On other notes, I _might_ be editing previous chapters - if I do, I'll let you guys know in the next update or through my profile page. It won't be big changes, but just some minor changes in details.

Anyway, the next chapter will come whenever it's ready. Hopefully it wouldn't take more than two months, but... college has a way of catching me off guard when I least expect it.


	9. Offline Meeting

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii wake ga nai or Hidan no Aria. I also do not own any crossover character that may pop up in this story.

**Edit Date: **9/23/2013 - a few edits in accordance to certain things pointed out by reviewers that I agree with.

* * *

><p>The date of the meeting had quickly arrived.<p>

It was nearing Sunday afternoon, so Kyousuke had been pretty apprehensive at going in an extremely crowded area such as Akihabara. To his surprise however, it wasn't as crowded as he had envisioned and the train station was well kept despite the above average – at least to people that don't frequent Akihabara – gathering of people.

As for the reason why he was so apprehensive in going to such crowded places, was the fact that he might not be able to suppress his instinctual response to incapacitate people who catch him off guard. Out of everyone in the Japanese Branch of Busou Tantei, he had one of the highest spatial awareness so it was truly difficult to catch him off guard.

But with more people to take into account along with the fact that traversing through a crowd would inevitably change the 'variables' around him, Kyousuke would eventually reach his limit on taking everything that's going around him unto account.

While reacting to unknown entities with force would actually be helpful in situations where just about everything in the immediate area are hostiles, in normal events such as this, it would be a mere hindrance and gather unneeded attention.

"Oh wow! The Radio Department! The Game Head Store!"

While Kyousuke was mulling about his own built up reaction to unknown entities, Kirino on the other hand was excitedly looking at the shops that practically littered the streets of Akihabara.

Based on her reaction though, this meant that he wasn't the only one that hadn't gone to Akihabara. Given Kirino's occupation, it shouldn't be that much of a surprise seeing as her 'turf' would most likely be Shibuya or Harajuku.

Even now, Kirino seemed to exude an aura different from those walking the streets of Akihabara. Despite having toned down her clothing to something more common, the combination and quality of the material to the trained eye would immediately tell the observer that she was far different from a common otaku. That and, even though it was more plain looking than her normal choice of clothing, her clothing is still those with brand names – hence, expensive.

If this was her idea of toning down her wardrobe, then she really needed to get out more.

...not like he could really say anything about it seeing as his own clothing was designed by Kuroneko, which practically guaranteed high quality and durability despite the plain combination.

Glancing at his watch, Kyousuke noted that it was nearing the time of the meeting.

"We're at the meeting point already, right? Then let's split up. I'll head over to the cafe."

"Huh? Oh, yes I got it."

She really did seem nervous. Where was the confidence that she often showed to those around her? With the way she was acting, even he would start feeling a bit of anxiety at leaving her behind.

"Don't look so worried." Kyousuke said, flashing what he hoped to be a reassuring smile. "I'll be watching over you."

"I-I'm not looking worried! Just go already idiot!"

"Yes, yes. Later."

Giving a halfhearted wave of his hand, Kyousuke headed to the cafe's direction, using the most discrete route possible.

This had been the first time he had gone to one of the most crowded areas in Japan and despite the numerous Butei wanting to have Akihabara under their jurisdiction, Kyousuke could honestly say he had no idea as to what made it so appealing.

Akihabara, even in a day that didn't hold any special event like the Comikets (at least, to his knowledge) that the location was famous for, was crowded to the point that those with claustrophobia would have an attack just by standing at the main road.

It was also hard to tell who exactly was a 'suspicious' person in the crowds that have gathered as 'odd' looks were present in just about any corner. Cosplays of anime characters he could and couldn't recognize were just the tip of the iceberg from his perspective.

Speaking of jurisdictions, Kyousuke had in fact collaborated with the one who had 'won' the lottery on having Akihabara as their jurisdiction. Although during that time, she had personally gone out of her jurisdiction since the culprits had originated from her area.

'Lottery' was the word Kyousuke associated with the 'fight for Akihabara' tournament rather than the actual title of 'tournament' since it was all a matter of luck really. Unless one happened to be a jack-of-all-trades type like he was, it was unlikely that the games placed in the tournament would lead to one's victory. After all, what were the chances that the games picked for the round that one would participate in would be in their favor?

Of course, that would be the case under normal circumstances.

If there was one thing that all Busou Tantei operatives learned, be it within training or on the field, it was that if you can't win normally...

...you cheat.

Even without participating, Kyousuke could admit he had learned a lot that day.

With the number of buteis in the Japanese Branch that participated that day, it could be said that the one who held jurisdiction over Akihabara was the master of cheating. Even with his jack-of-all-trades capability, unless the 'limits' were set, he'd be hard pressed to making her yield.

Thus, it was common knowledge (at least to him anyway), that if a bet or fight where _she_ was involved took place, never bet against her. If a fight was inevitable, finish it quickly before she can gain any form of foot hold.

The more she wants the prize, the more extreme the methods get.

She had never killed though, at least not an ally and especially not in a 'friendly' competition. But the same could not be said for her 'true' enemies.

"Speaking of which, she never did tell me what her occupation was."

Every Butei held an occupation that would allow them to blend in to society. Such occupations tended to range from something as mundane as an office worker, to something as lucrative as a somewhat obscure but nevertheless famous designer.

In Kyousuke's case, he merely took the most simplest one available to someone with his age.

It wasn't like he had much of a choice though; seeing as he was one of the most reliable Busou Tantei that can act and survive under high profile missions. If he was obstructed by occupations that didn't allow him to act too freely, then it would be detrimental in both his performance and the success of a mission.

And when missions often had lives involved, it was best not to have anything disturb him.

"Hmm... I think this is the place."

Looking up from his cellphone, he took a searching glance at the location where the offline meeting was going to take place. It wasn't a particular tall building, and had a few people going in and out. The design itself wasn't particularly worth noting either. The only thing that allowed Kyousuke to identify it as the location, was the large billboard indicating the name of the cafe.

"Cafe Pretty Garden... what an imaginative name."

Then again, compared to the names he had been seeing on the way here, the name itself had its own unique flare... just not as unique as those that he had passed by.

Stepping into the building, he looked for the elevator that would lead him up directly to the 'front door' of the cafe.

Based on what he could gather, the front door of the cafe was essentially the elevator opening towards the floor it resided in. Hence, the front door _was_ the elevator.

Kyousuke had seen such designs in several buildings outside of Japan, whenever he accompanied his supervisor in whatever she needed to do (although in all honest, he'd rather _not_ find out why he brought him along). The main difference between those trips and the current scenario, was that this building was far smaller than any of the buildings which held similar designs.

Entering the elevator as it reached the ground floor, he immediately closed it to prevent anyone else from following him inside.

Call him paranoid, but he never wanted to be stuck in an elevator with a lot of people he didn't know.

Pressing the button for the third floor, he briefly analyzed the composition of the elevator before giving a small but audible sigh.

"Come on... this isn't a mission."

While there's a set objective in today's excursion and that, for all and intents purposes, was Kirino's secret bodyguard, this wasn't a mission that had lives at stake or the need to obtain vital information.

This was simply an excursion where he was acting to his best capability as the older brother of a younger sister.

As the door opened, he stepped into the cafe proper only to stop at his tracks.

It wasn't because he had somehow ended up in the wrong floor, no it was because the waitresses had all stopped to stare at him.

Said waitresses turned towards him in unified fluid motion, and uttered the words,

"Welcome back, Master!"

To be honest, he wasn't entirely surprised because of the maid. Maybe by the circumstances he was slightly surprised, but it was definitely not enough to make him slack-jawed at the sight before him like what he was doing now.

So no, a maid cafe couldn't really surprise seeing as he was in _Akihibara_ of all places. No, it was because of one particular person who was giving him a sly smile that basically said 'you're so screwed'.

Said person stepped forward out of all the similarly dressed waitresses and flashed him a bright smile. The smile held all the cheeriness one would expect from a maid, but an aura emitting from her that seemed to say something incomprehensible.

"S-senpai?" Kyousuke mouthed out.

His voice was barely audible but it seemed like the guests nearest to the door heard it and started muttering darkly to themselves.

"Are you here alone, Master?"

Kyousuke's senpai, and the one who held Akihibara under her jurisdiction, asked.

"Y-you're working here?"

"So you are then, please follow me."

Kyousuke's senpai, turned around still flashing her smile which seemed to settle down some of the guests who had been muttering and glaring his way.

If Kyousuke understood the mentality of such people even just a tiny bit, they probably thought he was some sort of unknown rival... provided that they actually made some moves already.

Following her towards a seat that gave a good vantage point of the door, but reclusive enough that not many would look his way, he realized, that just like everything within the cafe, it held a distinct western style.

Another thing to note, was that, despite the time of day, there wasn't many guests. The few guests that he saw here seemed to be pinning over the maids than actually enjoying their meals, which he supposed was the goal of such a cafe.

"Will this seat be fine?"

"Uh, yeah..."

Accepting the seat graciously, he turned his head towards his senpai, noting that with the way her twin tails were held up, she looked exceptionally cute. She normally didn't wear her hair in twin tails, but then, he had never actually seen her outside of Busou Tantei work.

Not to mention that he could have never envisioned his senpai doing such... _cute_ work.

"This is our menu." Kyousuke's senpai said as she handed him a brown menu book. "Do you have any requests on how you would like to be addressed?"

Wait... request on how to be addressed?

Kyousuke's mind returned to the incident at Luxembourg...

As it was mentioned before, Kyousuke had participated in numerous of missions ranging from high profile to downright fatally dangerous missions. Missions within his mind were often categorized by how injured he was, the continent it occurred and those who had come with him.

The mission in Luxembourg had a special mention within his mind. Not because of the location it had occurred in, nor was it the danger he had faced in the mission. For all and intents purposes, the danger wasn't particularly that threatening when compared to prior missions and while it was the only mission he had in Luxembourg, it did not mean he hadn't participated in missions around the area.

But the injuries he had sustained in that mission...

While the physical injuries he had obtained in the mission was hardly worth noting, it was the mental trauma that he had gained that really made it stand out.

It had started so normally, but the ending...

_No! Don't think about it!_

***Pah!***

Punching himself out of reflex, Kyousuke stumbled out of his chair as he nursed his reddening cheek.

While the other maids looked concerned and the other guests bewildered at his actions, Kyousuke crawled back up to his chair and gave an apologizing gesture towards those present.

The fact that his senpai hadn't moved at all and kept her ever present smile made Kyousuke suppress a shiver.

It was clear.

She _knew_.

"R-request, huh... I -"

Taking a mental deep breath, Kyousuke decided to check his options.

If this was a visual novel, he would be presented with several choices that might as well define how the next hour would go.

Analyzing the situation he was in, the thing that first entered his head was _maid cafe_.

A maid cafe is essentially defined as a cafe ran by waitresses who acted like maids and wore maid costumes to attract customers. As they acted as maids, they refer to the guests as masters – thus, they _should_ obey any requests so long as it was reasonable.

With that, he could simply request that -

"If you're feeling indecisive, then let me offer some suggestions..." With that, Kyousuke's senpai slowly pulled out what seemed to be a paper.

Every second seemed to last a whole minute as Kyousuke recognized the picture, rather, the flag that was imprinted on the paper she was taking out.

It was the flag of Luxembourg.

All of Kyousuke's reason jumped out the window, lunging towards the his senpai, she nimbly stepped out of the way with the same grace as before making it look like she hadn't just avoided an aggressive lunge.

"What's wrong Kyo-kun?" She asked her tone still cheery, but more familiar than before. "If there's something not to your liking please mention it."

Kyousuke was peripherally aware that he was attracting a lot of attention, but his mind was solely focused on the paper that she had.

"I don't know, Kirara-senpai, but it may have something to do with what's on your hand."

He replied, trying to keep the nervousness out of his voice.

Hoshino Kirara, the one who presides over Akihabara and a Rank A Inquesta and Rank B interrogator, flashed Kyousuke a predatory smile that, due to the angle, could only be seen by Kyousuke.

"You mean this?"

Before she could even finish her words, Kyousuke rushed forward his hand flying towards the paper at surprising speed.

Well, it would be surprising to most people, but even if frontal confrontations isn't Kirara's specialty, such speeds aren't something to be surprised about in Busou Tantei.

The hand holding the paper tilted to the side, a bit early in timing, but nevertheless enough that changing the course of his hand to catch the paper would be impossible. His other hand would have reached out as well, but Kirara stepped into his guard flashing a wink before skipping several steps towards the center of several empty tables.

"I'm afraid I won't be able to relinquish my hold on this paper as it is vital for a performance." She said flashing the paper.

Kyousuke didn't understand. What did he do to earn her ire? Or was there something more to what she was doing?

"Then _I'm_ afraid that there will be a change of plans."

Dashing forward, he planted his hands onto a table and used it to power a flip towards Kirara's position.

It was a flashy move, but one that made predicting how he would land near impossible until the moment it occurred. Due to his curled up body in mid air, he barely just cleared the roof of the cafe.

Kyousuke attempted to land a heel drop onto Kirara, but it seemed she had anticipated it as she caught his heel with her open hand. Despite the weight and force that Kyousuke placed into the attack, she had managed to stop his heel with barely any show of exertion.

It wasn't unexpected, thus Kyousuke reversed the momentum of his attack and quickly bended his body back mid air to have his other foot aim at Kirara's other hand.

The attack met only air, as Kirara back stepped, for Kyousuke's part, he planted his hands onto a nearby table to place himself into an upright position.

"Kyo-kun, rough play isn't allowed in the cafe~"

Kyousuke was a bit irked that she still managed to keep her composure, but if he didn't want to lose any more face due to what he was doing now, he had no choice but to play along.

"I'm a bit parched and I haven't had lunch yet, so don't be too surprised that I'm feeling a bit irritated."

"Is that so? Then what would you wish to have?"

"Sorry, but I haven't had time to read the menu yet!"

Kyousuke grabbed a table tissue dispenser and threw it at Kirara. A bit rough, but he needed to change his tactics.

Kirara caught the tissue dispenser, and pivoted in place to avoid another lunge, the end position had Kyousuke and Kirara facing back to back.

"Then might I recommend, the _Imouto's_ Handmade Curry?" Kirara asked, although Kyousuke could tell it wasn't a recommendation but more of a request for him to buy it.

"A cup of water too, I'm not too fond of soft drinks right now."

Quickly glancing at the clock, Kyousuke noted that it's only a matter of time before the offline meeting would take place – and he needed to end this so that he wouldn't scare Kirino's potential friends.

"Then, one Imouto Handmade Curry Zaraki flavor please!"

Zaraki? What the heck is that?

Shaking his head off the distraction, Kyousuke decided to finish this... at the very least, he hoped the food was edible.

"Well then, with the order complete, I guess it's time for me to return to my seat."

"Is that so? Are you sure you don't wish to order anything more?"

"...pretty sure."

Taking a step forward, but only large enough so that the exact time that his and Kirara's back were no longer touching was half a second, he then performed a back flip, planting his hands onto Kirara's shoulder. His legs would have most likely hit the roof of the cafe if he didn't bend his knees upon the apex of his flip.

Pressing hard on two pressure points using his hands on Kirara's shoulder, he dislodged one hand from Kirara's shoulder and quickly grabbed the piece of paper before continuing his flip and landing at the seat he had been assigned a few minutes earlier.

With the way he sat down from his flip, it might as well look like as if he hadn't just landed from a high height.

The pressure point he had pressed in Kirara's shoulder temporarily paralyzed the arms by numbing the nerves to any form of signal from the brain. In essence, he simply froze Kirara's arms into its position in the brief moment he had his arms on Kirara's shoulders.

Kyousuke tried to look as nonchalant as possible, although the cold sweat that dripped down from his forehead might indicate that the stares he was receiving from the other guests weren't exactly very comfortable. Not to mention that his altercation with Kirara had caused quite a stir despite the silence enveloping the cafe.

It was at that moment that Kirara spoke.

"Thank you for watching our midday performance! We apologize for the surprise and unexpectedness of the play, but as this is our trial run, please place your honest comments in the forms that have been handed out to you."

At that, Kyousuke's head turned towards Kirara with a disbelieving look.

_That_ had been the performance?!

Taking a look at the paper that he had obtained from Kirara, the paper did not have the contents that he had feared, but simply a sentence saying: 'Thanks for the help, Kyo-kun!' The rest of the paper was conspicuously empty.

Damn... when did she figure out that he was going to this particular cafe in the first place? He was pretty sure he only mentioned that he'd be having an excursion with his sister to Akihabara...

Kyousuke sighed, slumping down onto his desk despite the applause coming from the other guests.

"Here's your water Kyo-kun."

He didn't bother to look up as Kirara placed a water table by his desk.

If ordering a single meal was this tiring, he's never going back to this place again!

Kyousuke didn't have much time to rest his suddenly tired body as the elevator door swung open and a group of girls entered the cafe.

He lazily glanced at the entrance and felt his throat dry at the sight of the woman leading the girls into the cafe.

Kyousuke felt he was justified at having a surprised expression on his face (although with his current position, it might just seem that he had found keeping his mouth closed while slumped onto the table really troublesome) on what he was seeing now. To put it simply, it was quite an outrageous combination.

For one, the large girl that led the group was about 180cm tall. She had curves at all the right places and without a doubt would have been some sort of model if she didn't dress up the way that she did.

To put it bluntly, she really looked like an otaku.

She wore a bandana by her forehead, and wore round spectacles. She also wore a green long sleeved plaid shirt tucked into her pants and a backpack that had several posters sticking out of it.

She looked much like the typical otaku one would see from TV.

The clashing combination of her natural looks with her clothing really attracted his attention.

Kyousuke sat up, and drank his water.

The large girl started to talk to a maid and another surprising fact was made known to him.

"I reserved a table at 1:00 de gozaru."

Whoa, what was with that ending particle? Did she come from a lineage of ninjas or samurais?

For the maid's part, she didn't even seemed surprise. He supposed this was some sort of normal occurrence. This was Akihabara after all, so what's to say this wasn't normal?

It was merely a thought, but Kyousuke felt that if he truly did accept such a statement, then his vaunted and unofficial title of 'man of common sense' within Butei would suffer a huge hit. Rather, it would be more correct to call him 'man who takes everything in stride'.

"Of course, may I ask your name?"

"Saori Bajeena."

**PFFT!**

"Kyo-kun! Are you arlight?"

Kirara, who had been at Kyousuke's side all this time, asked worriedly.

Really, it was a far cry from how she was acting before, but then he supposed it was for the sake of the performance...

"I-I'm fine, senpai... water just went down the wrong wind pipe..."

Not naturally of course, but if this was a daily occurrence in Akihabara he better be careful on how he eats his food here. It would be a pathetic way to die due to wrong ingestion.

Even if he didn't intend to do it, the other guests had gone back from applauding the earlier show to downright cursing his name due to his rather envious position. Kyousuke wouldn't call it envious seeing as Kirara had blackmail material on him that would allow her to force him to do things he'd rather not do.

Despite this, Kirara patted at his back to relieve his coughing fit.

Bajeena was one thing, but to think that the well mannered lady he had envisioned after seeing the forum message was actually that person...

It shouldn't have been surprising really, after all he had dealt with plenty of rich people who's actual true personality differed from the norm (then again, Kyousuke didn't even need to look as far as other countries – he simply needed to look at the other members of Busou Tantei) but to think that his illusion of a well mannered person that matched Makina Saori would be shattered just like that...

"Ugh... C-can I have more water, senpai?"

"Oh? Of course! But really Kyo-kun, a lot of people would be mad if you get hospitalized for such a thing like this."

Kirara scolded while pouting cutely.

"Yeah, sorry for troubling you senpai."

Maybe it was because of the public setting or the fact that she really seemed like an older sister at that moment, but Kyousuke felt himself blush at her worry.

Then again, Kirara was easily older than him, but how old was she...?

"Hm? Were you thinking something rude just now, Kyo-kun?"

"N-nothing! I'm just really thirsty!"

Scary! Did she just read his mind?

Kyousuke gave a sigh as Kirara left to get his water, and took a discrete look at the entrance where the conversation seemed to have begun once again.

Even though it was discrete, Kirino seemed to have seen his action and had directed a glare his way that seemed to say 'What do you think you're doing? Do you want to die?'

Kyousuke tried to explain with eye contact that it wasn't his fault either, and whether she got it or not, she huffed and turned away.

Taking his eyes off of Kirino for a moment, Kyousuke noticed that she really did stand out when compared to other comers.

While there were some that seemed to be into cosplay – whoa, was that Kuroneko!

It was easy to tell at first glance as she was the only one out of those present that had long silky black hair. Furthermore, she wore a black gothic lolita dress that, if he recalled correctly, was based on Maschera an anime that apparently held the same time slot as the anime that Kirino watched.

The main difference from the usual Kuroneko however, was that she directed an unreadable stare at Kirara's departing feature... at least, until she disappeared into the kitchen.

Once their eyes met, the previous unreadable stare became readable as it said: 'So senpai finds older women more interesting, huh...'

Kyousuke slammed his head to the table.

He really didn't want to deal with this.

Wait... now that he thought about it, wasn't this the date of Kuroneko's 'extracurricular investigation'? Also, the meeting that she had to miss due to the investigation was occurring at the present time, so it was unlikely that the investigation would occur at a later time or earlier time.

So did that mean that whatever she was doing now was linked to her investigation?

Stumbling onto an investigation done by another Butei was rare; in the case it did happen, there were two actions that the Butei who had stumbled onto the investigation could do: the first one would involve discretely interacting with the investigating Butei as to receive information on how to act, and the second would be to act as if nothing had happened and continue onwards, preferably away from the Butei's investigation area.

As recklessly assisting with a Butei investigation without approval could cause problems such as incurring suspicion from the party being investigated or causing unwanted variables to pop up that would prevent the investigation bearing any fruit, one has to act with caution so that an investigation could finish as peacefully as possible and hopefully with some success.

With that information in mind, Kyousuke opted to do the second form of action.

He decided to do nothing that he wouldn't normally do outside of Butei.

When he finally did raise his head, Kyousuke noted that several tables had been merged together. There were a total of 10 members and despite such a small group of people, upon sitting down, they've already split themselves into smaller group.

Kirino would most likely have end up alone if it weren't for the fact that Kuroneko had decided to sit by her side.

Kyousuke mouthed a silent 'thank you', although despite sitting together the two seemed to be content within their own worlds – which is to say, they took out a cellphone each and, for the most part, ignored the events going around them.

Kirino would participate every now and then, but after seeing the exchange, it was clear that the others didn't really want to talk to her.

To put it simply, she (and to a certain extent, Kuroneko) exuded an aura that naturally repelled those 'below' her. Even if she didn't do it intentionally, the way that she acts was too ingrained that it easily intimidated those considered as 'commoners'.

In a sense, the saying that 'birds with the same feathers flock together' held some truth and quite sadly, none of them – with, perhaps, the exception of Kuroneko – matched such a description.

Even if some of them held the same hobby as Kirino – particularly that magic girl anime and little sister genre eroge – unless they could somehow ignore Kirino's innate aura, then simply looking for those that 'shared interests' wouldn't work.

"Damn... that's really pitiful."

Before he could act on it, a vibration from his pants disrupted his thoughts just as he noticed that Kuroneko had taken the initiative to converse with his sister.

Letting a small smile leak into his cheeks, Kyousuke averted his gaze and looked at his cellphone.

_**From: Gokou Rurie**_

_**To: Kousaka Kyousuke**_

_**Leave it to me.**_

Kyousuke gave a soft sigh.

Really, depending on his kouhai to accomplish something for him had never really tasted good in his mouth. Kuroneko had always wanted to be his pillar of support.

To be honest, he had no idea when it had all began, but when it had, Kyousuke had no idea how to deal with it.

Perhaps it had been the way that he had treated her before she became a Busou Tantei operative? Kyousuke was pretty sure it wasn't _that_ event. He had little part with _that_ event, although if there had been one thing he could have changed during that time, was that he should have played a larger role.

"You seem to be in a good mood, Kyo-kun."

"No thanks to you of course." Kyousuke quipped, although without any heat. "Did you know this was going to happen?"

"A bit." She admitted, placing a new glass of water onto his table along with the curry he had ordered. "Today was supposed to be my break though."

"Then why come?"

"While I trust you and Kuroneko-chan's integrity, certain things have piqued by interest."

"...so that means there is something going on, huh?" Kyousuke released a small sigh, taking out the paper that he had took from Kirara moments earlier. "I'm guessing the information that you've gathered is in this paper?"

It wasn't particularly hard to come to that conclusion seeing as Kirara barely tried during their scuffle earlier. If she really wanted to declare the blackmail material to everyone within the room, she would have set traps ahead of time or even used one of the other maids as shields.

While using humans as shields were frowned upon, but since it wasn't a serious situation (at least not to her at any rate) then she'd use _anything_ to dampen his progress.

Kirara giggled, before sporting a mischievous smile.

"You know me well, Kyo-kun~ Maybe I should ask you to become my partner?"

"...in my opinion, I don't know you well enough."

Besides the fact that Kyousuke didn't want to partner up with anyone in fear of taking them into a situation that would be far too dangerous for comfort, Kirara's words implied that instead of becoming his partner, Kirara wanted him to be _her_ partner.

Even if the wording might hold little difference, it's this difference that set it apart from previous requests.

"Fufufu~ A lady is allowed to have some secrets you know~"

With those parting words, Kirara departed to enter the kitchen of the cafe.

Placing his attention on the food, he noted that it looked pretty ordinary. Sure, there was some odd colors here and there, but Kyousuke figured it was simply food coloring.

While the food may be called 'Imouto's Handmade Curry', Kyousuke certainly hoped it isn't an imouto who's simply trying too hard to please despite cooking for the first time. That might be cute, but that isn't what he wanted from a cafe!

"Well, I guess I can relax for the time being..."

It was a guess that was far from correct.

_**SLAM!**_

The spoon that was set to land in Kyousuke's mouth jerked violently, it's contents spilling back unto the plate.

"I heard something I can't ignore. What did you say? Meruru? You aren't talking about Stardust Witch Meruru are you?" Kuroneko scoffed. "Magical Girl Animes are out of style! Those are for retarded children or men who only care about moe! It's just a crappy anime; look at the viewer percentage. That program is the back program, now quite talking about your delusions."

Even if Kuroneko's words was hardly louder than her normal tone, Kyousuke could easily that she was _pissed_.

Butei or not, that wouldn't end well.

"_Viewer Percentage_? What the heck are those? If you're thinking that Maschera anime is the front program, you've got it backwards. When compared to Meruru, all other shows are back programs! I mean, did you even see the animation for the last episode of season 1? Not only was it fluid, but the insert song totally matched the scene! Don't underestimate a kid's anime!"

Kirino fired back with much more heat – at the very least, her anger was much more pronounced when compared to Kuroneko.

Kyousuke facepalmed.

Was it too much to ask that this meeting would go as planned? He had been hoping that the two would be able to converse amiably in regards to anime and perhaps trade their views to arouse interest on the other side in regards to their own interests.

Then again, he did recall that Meruru and Machera occurred at the same time in different channels... he just didn't think that it would be part of the reason why they were arguing right now.

Huh? Wait, why were they going towards his table?

"You!" "Senpai!"

"Y-yes?"

"''Which anime is better? Meruru or Machera?''"

"Rather than asking, couldn't you do this discretely! Look, I barely even know the two, shouldn't you be asking the other forum members?"

Kyousuke said trying to placate the two. There was no question on what was going to happen should he mention it as 'just anime'. Not only would he earn the ire of the two in front of him, he was pretty sure that he might also earn the ire of others who may hold anime in the same way that his kouhai and little sister does.

With the guys within the cafe already cursing his interactions with his senpai, and the fact that two beautiful girls had suddenly walked up to him without any interaction from his point aside from _existing, _those guys would take any reason to beat him up.

He really had to thank his ability to think on his feet under such a situation.

"Kuh. To think that senpai hasn't been properly inducted to my world... An oversight in my part..." Kuroneko mutters to herself. "Some sessions would be needed to rectify this fact..."

He didn't like the sound of that.

"Damn... I just assumed that since you had my DVD and that you're a guy, you would have actually watched it... I guess that's another thing to add to the agenda."

"You two... don't make plans over how to use me without consulting with me!"

"...what about this? Since we have someone who hasn't been inducted, why don't you two introduce the first season of the two anime and then ask him what's better?"

Saori suddenly interjected, having walked from the main table to Kyousuke's table during the discussion.

"I suppose that's a good idea, administrator."

"Yeah, that would work."

Kuroneko and Kirino seemed to agree to the idea, as they nodded their heads.

"Wait, you're still not asking if I'm alright with this!"

* * *

><p>"So to formally introduce myself, I am Saori Bajeena. The administrator of 'Otaku Girls Get Together' community. As I've written in my profile page, I'm 15 years old. A 9th Grade Student and if I remember right, I'm the same age as Kuroneko-shi."<p>

Another one of Kyousuke's illusions shattered at that moment. It really seemed like judging someone based on their looks didn't work at all. Despite her size, Saori was actually younger than him.

"As for my three sizes, they are 88, 60-"

"You don't need to tell us that."

"They're the same as Fujiwara Norika!"

"Like I said, you don't need to say it!"

The time was around mid-afternoon. The other members of the offline meeting had left, and the two, with the inclusion of Saori, had moved towards McDonald to have the 'other party'.

The 'other party' was apparently set up so that Saori could converse personally with those she didn't manage to talk with in great length during the main meeting. Despite of (or more likely,_ because_ of) the ruckus that Kuroneko and Kirino had set up, it had only made them more unapproachable.

Kyousuke thought that such considerations was really nice of her. It was the kind of thing one would expect from a leader with a kind heart.

That said, the way she spoke and dressed really made it difficult to tell...

"Does anyone have a question for her?" Kyousuke muttered tiredly, taking a bite from the burger he bought.

He was already tired from all the antics and his eye lids wanted to shut close despite not feeling sleeping at all...

"Then the question that everyone must have wanted to ask, I will ask." Kuroneko volunteered, staring straight to the eyes of Saori.

It really looked like she was going to interrogate her and given her position and rank, Kyousuke hoped that she didn't use any of her skills regardless of how discrete.

"Administrator -"

"Please call me Saori."

"Right... Saori-san, what is that ugly otaku fashion and way of speaking?"

"Um, you could word it more nicely, Kuroneko..."

Surprisingly, Saori didn't look the least bit insulted, rather she looked more sheepish than anything else.

"Oh my, how embarrassing... Actually this is my first time organizing an offline meeting. I put in a lot of effort to make up a personality that suits as a leader so that I will be liked by everyone as much as possible... I'm more of a quiet type in reality."

Was that the case? It was hard to tell since it seemed like she fell into the role quite well. Maybe if he knew the real 'Saori' he would be able to tell... well, there were other clues also, but with the current revelation, the reasoning was pretty sound.

For instance, Kyousuke could tell that, apart from the bag and glasses she wore, Saori's clothing were all pretty new despite the way it was worn. The combination only made it more difficult to notice.

"Is that so? Although I suppose it is better than _someone_ wearing brand name clothes and have that as the reason to be excluded."

"Then what about you? What's with that overkill Goth-loli dress? I didn't think that someone would wear something like that to an offline meeting even in Akiba!"

Kirino and Kuroneko must not really like each other...

Despite the fact that Kuroneko was a designer, her handle name when designing clothes was far different when compared to her 'normal' handle name and her butei handle name. It was rather surprising that Kouhei knew about her 'normal' handle name, but seeing as he was an apparent fan of Kuroneko's line of clothing...

On another note, even Kirino would recognize Kuroneko's brand clothing... if she had been wearing any. Kuroneko was careful enough to reduce those who knew her handle names.

"Hm... the way I notice it though, that you three... you all dressed up in the hopes of the offline meeting going well, right?"

Kyousuke pointed out.

For Kuroneko, she may simply dressed up for an investigation, but her choice and the clothing that she herself had sewed for this meeting was enough to tell him of her efforts.

For Saori, she had chosen the clothing and style of speaking as a means to make everyone comfortable for a supposed leader of an otaku group.

For Kirino, she had worn clothes to what she believed, based on her natural environment, to be the best set of clothing for a meeting.

Even if the conclusion that they came up with as to what clothing would help them succeed in the meeting was entirely different, each one had put in effort in the clothing they chose.

"So while there are faults, each one did their best, so there's nothing wrong with that, right?"

Kyousuke had simply said it in a whim, maybe to diffuse the sparks that Kuroneko and Kirino were needlessly throwing up, but his words had hit home.

Kirino and Kuroneko had turned away, seemingly chastised while Saori seemed to glow even brighter.

"Good analysis, Kyousuke-shi! I hadn't thought about that until you mentioned it! Fufufu, you're a good listener observer aren't you?"

"I suppose..."

"Right! So the next one... Kuroneko-shi, your introduction please!"

"...right." Kuroneko said quietly, before facing everyone within the table. "My handle name is 'Kuroneko.' My favorite anime is Maschera - Lament of the Fallen Beast."

"By the way, you keep calling Kyousuke 'senpai'. You're still at middle school, right? So why are you calling him 'senpai'?"

Kirino asked, sending a suspicious look at Kyousuke.

"Because he's my senpai." Kuroneko answered with her usual expression. Although for Kyousuke, she might as well have sounded like she was stating the obvious. "...and I plan to enroll into his high school after I graduate from middle school."

"Ho~?" Saori mouthed, a cat-like grin gracing her face. "I think the question that Kiririn-shi is really asking, is when did you start calling him 'senpai' – was that before or after you decided to enroll into his high school?"

For some reason, a chill ran down Kyousuke's spine at that question... although it may have something to do with the glare Kirino was sending his way. What did he do now?

"Before. He's helped me in some of my problems and I had learned much from him."

It was relatively vague, but thankfully, it didn't seem to increase the intensity that the glare that Kirino sent his way.

"Okay, next! Let's go with Kiririn-shi!"

"I'm... Kiririn, my hobbies are playing... games and watching Stardust Witch Meruru."

Kirino started a bit timidly, but it seems that the previous conversation had bolstered her confidence somewhat.

"Questioning time! Go on, Kuroneko-shi, you can ask the question!"

"...I'll pass. I already asked my question earlier."

The smirk that Kuroneko had, fanned the flames of Kirino's temper once again.

Did Kuroneko really like riling up his sister? Or does she really dislike anyone who insulted her anime?

"So then, Kyousuke-shi, it's your turn!"

"Me?"

It was a bit unexpected... after all, he wasn't really part of the offline meeting and had only tagged along since Saori had also extended the invitation to him. He had really expected to simply be an observer rather than being actually involved.

...then again, doing tsukkomis doesn't actually constitute to being just an observer, especially if he actually voiced it.

"Well, the others have done their introduction, and you're the only one left..."

"Okay then... my name is Kousaka Kyousuke, I'm Kirino's brother. I'm in first year high school and my hobby is sleeping."

Kyousuke introduced, with what he hoped to be a casual attitude. This was the kind of introduction that he did during his first day of classes, and for all and intents purposes, sounded much like it was rehearsed or at least uttered one too many times.

"...you actually said it with a straight face."

"Senpai..."

"So Kyousuke-shi is a lazy type?"

Eh? Why was their responses so much like his classmates? Kuroneko was doing a good impression of what his homeroom teacher muttered during his introduction...

"Uhh... so do you have any other questions for me Saori-san?"

"Right."

Rather than immediately asking a question, Saori seemed to stare hard at him. Although it was hard to notice where exactly she was looking at due to her spectacles, but her method of scrutinizing was a bit too focused for comfort.

"Er... Saori-san?"

Kyousuke asked again after a moment of silence.

"Hmm... Have we met before?"

It was an unexpected question. One that immediately made Kyousuke frown as he tried to recall similarities within his memory...

Based on Saori's words earlier that pretty much implied this wasn't how she was normally, it meant that using the current Saori to determine if he had met the person in question before would yield nothing. So that only left physical features.

The color of Saori's hair was a distinct 'blue'.

Very few people had such a hair color, even more so for those that naturally had blue as their hair color. With that knowledge, it immediately cut down the candidates to less than five. Taking into account her physical size and stature, that left a single individual.

The only person that matched such a description within his immediate memory was -

"No. I doubt we had met before. I would definitely remember someone with your three sizes, if we indeed had."

_**BAM!**_

That hurts! Even though he was expecting it from his sister, the power behind that blow was enough to send his forehead towards the table.

At least it wasn't life threatening or bleeding...

"How very flattering of you, Kyousuke-shi!"

Saori praised, although she sounded more amused than flattered due to his forehead hitting the table.

Kirino on the other hand muttered 'pervert', while Kuroneko seemed to sigh, almost as if pitying his choice of words.

"Why don't we walk around?" Kuroneko suddenly proposed. "It seems that senpai and his sister isn't well versed in Akihabara."

"That's a good idea! I have something I want to buy myself, so buying as a group would be fun!"

* * *

><p>Despite the amusing and rather odd things that Kyousuke had witnessed during their time shopping, a growing sense of apprehension seemed to disrupt his ability to immerse himself in the antics that the three otakus had going. Although that didn't stop him from observing their interactions.<p>

These antics ranged from prices and limited figurines for their respective anime interests, to commenting on the odd size range of clothing.

Even with the excursion, Kirino and Kuroneko didn't see fit to stop their attacks on the anime that the other one liked. Criticizing the collectibles, cosplay clothing and even nitpicking in the range of doujins available for a particular anime (which he'd rather not remember).

To the outside viewer, the two seemed to really hate each other. But based on the subject and the way that Kirino could easily recover from any clash even if she didn't conclusively win in an argument, seemed to say that although arguing, their shared love for anime was enough to have the other marked as 'friend' even if they would never admit it.

...although Kyousuke was quite surprised at the range of things that they used to criticize each other with.

Nevertheless, the feeling of apprehension never did waver and had only gotten stronger.

It had started by the time that Kuroneko had made the comment 'walk around'.

The comment really meant nothing special. In fact, Kyousuke had a feeling Kuroneko had proposed it as a means to lengthening the time her investigation target, that is, Bajeena Saori or as he had already figured out, Makina Saori, would spend with them.

While it was true that Makina Saori had indeed been in the location of his last mission, but he was relatively certain that she had nothing to do with the recent re-opening of previously completed missions.

Kuroneko had already mentioned that her investigation _might_ yield nothing, but if she was still pushing for more time, then it either meant she wanted to gather more information to provide conclusive evidence that she's not involved in any way – past or present – or that she had found something and she simply needed a little more information.

Whatever it was, Kuroneko had not alerted him to any more information aside from confirming that Saori was indeed the investigation target.

"Senpai."

Kuroneko's calling, brought Kyousuke out of his thoughts, his eyes that he had closed, snapped open. Although due to the silence of the hallway they were currently waiting in, he berated himself for only realizing now. Why did he close his eyes anyway? He wasn't feeling sleepy at the moment...

"Sorry..."

Kyousuke apologized, having realized that Kuroneko had been calling to him for a while now. Kirino and Saori had apparently gone into store near to the train station to purchase one last item, which was a robotic claw if Kirino and Saori's animated swinging of such a claw seen through the shop's window was any indication.

"Is there something wrong?"

It was a simple question, and based on his current state of apprehension, answering negatively would be the natural response.

"...I can't say."

Whether it was instinct as someone who had gone into and survived missions that would easily maim or annihilate a group of Buteis, or it was Kyousuke's unique ability to 'sense' things around him, he could not lie about the 'feeling' that was coursing through him.

Had he done so, and he was wrong, a whole lot of other things could go wrong – and it might not only affect himself.

"What do you mean?"

Kuroneko asked, inching closer.

Kyousuke paused. A sudden chill entering his spine as he finally realized what was wrong. It shouldn't have been surprising really, but after being pulled in to the offline meeting that Kirino had attended and actually immersing himself up until the time that they had left McDonald, he hadn't felt it in great strength until now.

That apprehensive feeling, he had _felt it before_.

"Kuroneko, get Kirino and Saori out -"

Kyousuke couldn't finish his words as he abruptly lost balance.

An earthquake did not occur, nor did anyone push him or impact his body to forcefully create a loss of balance.

Yet, a feeling akin to falling assaulted his senses and a near blinding light, like the sun had suddenly appeared in the hallway that they were in, made his eyes shut in reflex.

His sense of feeling was torn asunder as a large gust of wind was seemingly felt all over his body...

_**CLANG!**_

Even with all of Kyousuke's main senses thrown into disarray, his instincts, honed by one life threatening situation after another, had acted and the knives concealed by his clothing had made its way to his hands to intercept a knife that was on its way to his neck.

"Heh, I guess a cheap trick like that wouldn't be enough to take you out... Butei's Black Ops."

A man, with pupils as dark as charcoal, glared intently onto Kyousuke's resolute eyes. The man held a feral grin as he tried to forcefully overpower him.

Lashing out with the knife on his other hand, the man leaped backwards just as a chain with a nail-like ending soared towards Kuroneko which was deftly deflected with little effort from Kyousuke's part.

"Huh... didn't think there was a civilian that can stay conscious from that."

Another man said, as he walked right next to where his partner had retreated.

"Kuroneko. Get Kirino and Saori out of here."

It was a command, not a request. Kuroneko nodded to Kyousuke despite the latter facing the newcomers, hence the opposite direction.

Taking a deep breath, Kyousuke allowed himself a small smile as he spun his knives once and entered a ready position.

The day started so normally...

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes:<strong>

And here goes one of the longest chapters up to date. It's long, so I may do a few edits here and there if I notice something wrong (or someone else did).

Like with the previous chapter, I had not foreseen that this 'event' would take this long to write (both in terms of words written and how long it took me to write this). In any case, since I wanted to finish the offline meeting by this chapter, I had to make it much longer. That, and I haven't updated in nearly four months so... yeah. I blame college for that by the way.

I don't know when the next chapter will come out, but rest assured that I will update again at _least_ two more times before this year ends.


	10. Movement Unknown

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii wake ga nai or any of the concepts or characters that may have come from other series.

**Edit: **Replaced Makina with Makishima within this chapter. Other chapters will be edited at some point to reflect the change. Revised a few sentences to get a better flow.

As for some pre-chapter notes, be aware that violence would most likely have descriptions as to what is happening. So as a bit of warning, there will be blood and maybe gore (I'm not really sure what constitutes as gore, so advance warning). It's probably not to the extent of a mature rating though.

In any case, if there are grammar problems or anything similar, do inform me.

* * *

><p>There were two visible enemies. One held a chain-like weapon holding nails of sorts at each opposing ends while the other held a knife and a gun. The former wore a large green hood that concealed most of his features while the latter wore a blue long sleeved coupled with a large black vest.<p>

In terms of range, the two held an advantage as the only weapon Kyousuke held was his dual knives and the distance between them was around 20 meters.

A bullet can cross that distance in less than half a second, and the chain could apparently be thrown with speed and dexterity matching a thrown javelin.

Nevertheless, situations like these weren't out of the ordinary. It could be said that if one adds explosions into the mix, one might even call this a normal occurrence for Busou Tantei's Black Ops. With such thoughts in his mind, it was clear that Kyousuke was not worried for his own safety. Rather, he was curious as to how these two knew he was Busou Tantei's Black Ops in the first place.

In most of the missions he had participated, he had made sure that _none_ would be able to divulge his identity either through earning the trust of a client, insuring that an enemy would never be able to say his secrets either through wiping their memories of him or putting them in Butei's very own maximum security prison and that's provided they survived the confrontation.

The only two missions that may have compromised his identity would be the one that he had taken in Osaka a few weeks back or that other incident a few years ago. The latter however would be unlikely as reports indicated that everyone and anyone who had been in the vicinity with the exception of himself had all died.

Given the situation, Kyousuke could conclude one thing.

The two in front of him was likely to have been hired by the same person that hired the tall European with the 'built' type weapon. Although with that information, it didn't necessarily mean that the two in front of him held a form of 'built' type weapon – although the chain, due to its strange construct, may be some form of enchanted weapon nonetheless.

With that thought in mind, Kyousuke rushed forward.

_BANG! BANG! BANG!_

Three bullets were fired in rapid succession.

Kyousuke easily dodged the first one with a slight tilt of the head, while the other two was redirected to the side by slanting the flat edges of his knives to act as a form of shields.

Normal knives would have shattered or be punched clean through with such an action, but the knives that Kyousuke was using was far from normal. Despite its looks and that the only noticeable feature was its slightly longer than normal length, the knives that Kyousuke wielded was of the 'cast' type enchantment.

The main enchantment that had been cast onto the knife along with many of his other spares, were simply 'reinforcement'. In other words, the knives were much stronger than any ordinary knives and could even hold its own against an enchantment that specializes in 'breaking'. Given that it was a cast type, it was entirely possible to cancel the enchantment upon coming into contact with a curse that specializes in degradation or simply those that reverts things to its origin, but that had only happened in three different instances in the past.

This was not one of them.

Lashing out with a thrust using his right hand, the man wielding the gun backed off just as his partner lunged out with his nail.

Without even looking at the attack, Kyousuke parried the blow with his left and immediately pivoted in place to deliver a roundhouse with his right foot that was aimed at the man's ribs.

The attack missed as the hooded man ducked from the attack, but Kyousuke didn't stop as he chained the attack with an upward slash as soon as his .

The man rolled backwards to avoid the attack, and Kyousuke would have pursued if he didn't notice what had been left behind.

_PSSHHH!_

A loud hissing sound emitted from the objects that had been dropped by the hooded man as he retreated. The canisters, exuded smoke at an alarming rate that immediately obscured everything within the vicinity.

_BANG!_

Despite the lack of visibility, a loud bang emitted from Kyousuke's right.

The sudden attack along with the apparent closeness of it, impacted his right leg. Earlier, Kyousuke had been able to dodge and block the attack through watching the movements done by the man's hands and the location in which the barrel was pointing to – but due to the sudden lack of visibility, it was made impossible to dodge.

That said, the bullet _failed _to pierce the fabric.

This was not a case of the bullet actually being too weak on piercing normal fabrics, but more of a case of _who _had sewn his clothing.

Kuroneko made the majority of clothing used by Butei personnel. In collaboration with the resident enchanter, the clothing that Kuroneko sewed could essentially be the meaning of life or death for agents within the field.

In Kyousuke's case, Kuroneko had even gone as far as sewing a batch of 'everyday' clothing so that he'd remain protected even in the most unlikeliest of scenarios.

Kyousuke had thought of it as a bit too much before and despite Kuroneko's insistence, he had still been hesitant on actually going through with it. After all, out of all those in Busou Tantei, he had a tendency of needing a new mission clothing every other mission due to the mishaps he got caught in.

Now, however, Kyousuke felt the need to thank his kouhai the next time that they met.

A glint of silver caught Kyousuke's eyes, and he raised his left hand to block the blow – but instead of a nail coming from the direction that he noticed the glint of silver, an attack came from the opposite direction, forcing Kyousuke to roll to the side to avoid being skewered by a nail.

The smoke, Kyousuke realized, was oddly thick. To the point that even perceiving light was difficult.

Despite it's thickness, the smoke did not affect his throat. No scent could be picked up, nor was there anything that could be felt by his skin from the obscuring smoke. There wasn't anything agitating his eyes either, there was only a slight heaviness.

Kyousuke didn't feel the need to cough, nor did he feel anything odd with his body that would indicate something was odd with the smoke.

_'What is this?'_

The smoke was certainly unnatural. It's thickness, and its position had not changed after encompassing his vision. In fact, the smoke seemed to be evenly spread making vision limited in a perfect circle around him.

While Kyousuke didn't exactly _need_ his eyes to fight, in the case in which his opponent could most likely sense where he was without a way of sensing it himself had left him feeling a little bit anxious.

Alarms blared within Kyousuke's head, as he unconsciously flicked his wrist to deflect a knife heading towards his waist, and expertly lashed out with his other hand towards the man's hand.

Despite his speed and the obscuring smoke that made perceiving difficult, his knife only met air.

His movement did not stop there. If it had, it would have most likely been over.

_BANG!_

Cocking his head back, not even a second after the gunshot was heard, Kyousuke felt a bullet zip a few centimeters in front of his nose. Not even a second after the bullet had missed his head, he rolled to the side once more just as an odd piercing sound echoed through his head.

If it had ended their, Kyousuke could have possibly used the trajectory to find the source – but Kyousuke immediately noticed something alarming from the pierced tile that the projectile pierced. Oddly enough, it was in the opposite direction of the bullet he had just evaded.

A light, a red light was blinking. Along with it, a constant beeping sound.

_BOOOOM!_

An explosion tore through the hallway – the sound of which echoed through the eerily quiet Akihabara streets.

* * *

><p>Kuroneko figured, that the situation they were currently caught in shouldn't have been unexpected.<p>

Sure, she wasn't really expecting much by directly coming into contact with Makishima Saori and she had only done so since she was free and that it was occurring in a location she liked to frequent every now and again.

The offline meeting that Makishima Saori had set up (the identity of said person only coming into light once she had done a bit of research and copious amount of hacking) was a surprise, if not unwelcome. She was mildly surprised that Saori, who was described by her senpai as an 'ojou-sama' through and through, was actually an otaku.

She would have been more surprised if she didn't hold similar hobbies as the woman in question.

Immediately procuring an invite from Saori, Kuroneko had only made plans to observe the woman and if possible, do some subtle interrogation. She hadn't expected that her senpai would have somehow caught wind of her extracurricular investigation without even noticing a single sign that he had done so.

In any case, it quickly became clear to her that it was merely coincidence as (apparently) his own sister had also chosen to participate in the offline meeting.

Kuroneko knew Kousaka Kyousuke. As a fellow Busou Tantei member, it could be said that she knew more about Kyousuke than even his childhood friend. Being assigned to the same branch as the esteemed Special Ops of the Japanese sector would get anyone curious, especially so if said person had saved her before.

Thus, it could be said she _knew of_ Kousaka Kirino mainly due to her connection with Kousaka Kyousuke.

From what she could gather, Kousaka Kirino was part of a modeling agency along with several other classmates (a fact exemplified by the clothing she wore to the offline meeting) and was pretty much the 'perfect pupil' as not only was she popular, she had smarts and was the ace of the track team. In comparison to her brother whose achievements were confidential in nature, Kirino was a bright star that made it easy to ignore the brother altogether.

To an outsider, it may have seemed pitiful as the parents clearly favored one child over the other, but now that Kuroneko thought about it – she was starting to think that wasn't the case.

Regardless, information on Kirino was rather easy to dig up. Even with the presence of information however, it shouldn't have lead others to realizing her senpai was the infamous 'Black Ops' of Butei Japanese branch.

So what changed?

What had given away her senpai's identity?

If his identity had indeed been compromised, did it mean that her identity had also been compromised?

She shook her head at that.

Unlikely, she thought.

The two definitely did not recognize her, and had merely thought of her as a unique case of having remained conscious within the pulse. The question remained however, were the two the only one watching them?

Whoever sent the two must have realized that, even if the two were somehow specialized, in a prolonged battle, her senpai would eventually come out on top. Not only did he have experience and the ability to stop a small army on his own for a certain amount of time, his awareness in battle was in a whole new level especially when there were little things to worry about.

Even though Kuroneko herself wasn't exactly as well versed in combat as her senpai, she could still gauge the general level of an opponent by observing the way they held themselves along with their reaction to various stimuli. The small glimpse she had before entering the shop had told her that, unless the two had something else up their sleeves, then it was unlikely that they would best her senpai.

Then again, if her senpai's smile earlier was any indication, she had a feeling that he might not quickly finish the fight either to alleviate a bit of stress or to find something through the actions of his opponent despite interrogation being the faster way of obtaining concrete information.

Her senpai had a wide variety of skills, but interrogation and skills with the supernatural were relatively lower than the rest.

Turning her attention from the spectacle, Kuroneko took a quick look at the state of the two she had 'escorted' and had subsequently conversed with earlier.

The two had slumped down by an aisle holding (or at least, was in their hand) a pair of mechanical hands. Based on their position, they didn't seem to have hit their head to indicate any form of blunt trauma.

"Senpai says to take them out... but how do I take both of them?"

Skills with fighting, a skill that all Busou Tantei operatives held with varying degrees of effectiveness did not mean that heavy things became light. Rather, it may increase the likelihood of being able to carry things with a higher weight compared to a person in the same age group, but it did not give them super strength.

Kuroneko, despite the training she had gone through, could not confidently say that she had a large amount of strength. She may have training in Assault, but it wasn't her specialty and the lessons she had learned with Assault along with some of the missions that needed a bit of force all taught her how to apply subtle but destructive force.

Brute force was something that she did not have any strength in.

She could, perhaps carry Saori with a little difficulty – but her speed would no doubt be impeded. Kirino on the other hand could be easily carried with little effect onto her speed.

Both on the other hand, would seem like an impossible feat.

Sure, she could carry the two if pressed, but under the situation, she would most likely be a sitting duck to anyone else planning to take advantage of the situation.

Kuroneko took a step forward.

It was the only step that she could take.

Unless she wanted to live, and still have her head intact, she simply must not move.

"I suggest that you don't move."

It did help that the person pointing the gun to her head shared the same sentiment.

* * *

><p>Hoshino Kirara rushed through the silent streets – her work clothing had immediately been discarded for a business-like attire but with a free flowing skirt that allowed for easy movement.<p>

Scattered over the streets of Akihabara, were various people unconscious on the concrete. Cars that had unfortunately been running during the time that 'the pulse' triggered could be seen rammed through buildings or cars that had stopped before it.

In some cases, the car rammed through the pedestrians.

As a Butei Agent, Kirara merely felt a slight headache upon the activation of the pulse – but those that didn't have the same training that those of Butei experienced, would undoubtedly fall to the ground unconscious. With its effect, it was mostly used as a form of defensive countermeasure than an actual means to take out a foe.

More often than not, foes that required the help of Butei were similarly immune to 'the pulse'. Given that this had occurred in broad daylight along with not having been informed in advance that 'the pulse' would be activated, immediately told Kirara that this was most likely done by an organization of sorts.

Mercenaries were unlikely to do such a move, as 'the pulse' isn't easily utilized and required either an extremely experienced caster or a vast amount of money along with the right connections to allow such a thing to be possible. Kirara couldn't exactly decide which one was more likely ever since it was revealed that several 'closed' missions done by a vast majority of Butei Branches all over the world especially those of the Black Ops were revealed to still be 'open' due to a mission that Kyousuke had done a few weeks back.

While Kirara didn't partake in many missions that didn't occur in the immediate premises of her jurisdiction, two to three of her previous missions had been opened once more due to the discovery.

Taking her phone out, she wasn't surprised to see a call from the Japanese Branch.

"Hello?"

"Hoshino-senpai? This is Iori Junpei."

"...pervert-kun?"

"Senpai, if you're going to make a nickname for someone, please think it through better!"

"Perverted-baseball-cap-wearing-kun?"

"Too long, and that's not any better!"

"PBCW-kun, then."

"You just made the previous one into an acronym!"

She should really stop teasing her kouhai so much.

"You're the support personnel assigned to Kyo-kun, right?"

"Y-yes."

In normal cases, a number of support personnel was designated to a group of Buteis located within the same jurisdiction, or in cases with the jurisdiction being rather small, closely related jurisdictions have the same support personnel. For Black Ops members on the other hand, due to the sheer amount of high profile missions sent to them, a group of support personnel were assigned to a single member. Their main job was to provide information or support to the on-site members, while the support personnel remained in an area that would be extremely unlikely to be compromised.

Iori Junpei was unique for being the only support personnel assigned to a Black Ops member. For Junpei to be contacting her, it either meant that Kyousuke was either trying to contact her or that Junpei had been unable to contact Kyousuke – and the second one would only be possible if Kyousuke was somehow already involved with what's going on.

Though, it was technically an easy guess seeing as Kyousuke had been seen by her an hour or two earlier.

"What's going on?"

There were too many questions going on in Kirara's head that, due to being pressed for time, the only question that could effectively have the answer that she needed to go on the offensive rather than tracing the source of the pulse was the one that she had asked.

"Nothing good." Junpei answered grimly. "The pulse was relatively large and has sent the other half of Akihabara that hadn't been affected into panic."

"Anything on who's causing the attack and what's their objective?"

"We have nothing verified, but based on the core of the pulse, it's a safe bet that Kyousuke-senpai has already made contact with one of the enemy forces."

One of the enemy forces?

"Wait, what do you mean by -"

Kirara's words died in her throat as instincts took over and she immediately leaped forward to a roll.

Not even a whole second later, a bullet pierced the concrete adjacent from her position a moment earlier, the impact causing cracks to appear within the radius of its entrance. The sound of a rifle firing was soon heard after Kirara had completed her roll.

With the sheer gap between the time of impact and when the sound entered her ear, Kirara deduced that a sniper had been aiming at her.

The question was, up till when?

Kirara wasn't an expert in sniping. Regardless, she knew the basics enough that at her current position, taking her out would be impossible based on the trajectory of the bullet.

Almost as if someone up there hated her guts, another crack appeared directly in front of her position along with the oddly loud sound of a rifle firing resounding upon the quiet city.

"It pierced through the building...?"

The cover that she was using after completing her roll was a building in one of the intersections. With her limited knowledge of how rifles – particularly ones that were used for long ranged sniping – worked, one of the stronger rifles can practically make a concrete wall implode in itself as it pierces it. Some sniper rifles can pierce through armor plating as if it was paper.

At this range however, Kirara couldn't even determine where the sniper was along with what kind of rifle they were using.

The max effective range of conventional rifles was around 1500m. Through illegal modification, it would be possible to increase the effective range by another 300m or so, but to increase it to something as ridiculous as 2500 or even 3500m, it would require skill and correct reading of the environment.

At this point, trying to get a gauge of the opponent's location through the use of her own eyes would open her to another shot that she can't even defend against, but if she were to wait for an opening – that might not even come – the opponent could eventually reduce her cover area due to what the sniper had done moments ago.

"-enpai! Hoshino-senpai!"

"Woo~ Sorry about that, Baseball-cap-kun..."

"We're still going with that?!"

"I'm in a bit of a bind." Kirara replied ignoring her kouhai, as she took out a gun from her holster and released the safety.

It was a modified Beretta 93R. Regardless of its capabilities however, it was useless against a sniper rifle especially at such a range. Even using the insane ability of a certain Butei member to use bullets to deflect incoming bullets (something she simply couldn't do) would yield almost next to no change in trajectory with the sheer force used to fire the bullet that embedded itself through several meters of concrete. Regardless, she wasn't one to take things lying down.

Especially in her own jurisdiction no less!

"I'm sorry to ask this of you, pervert-kun... but can you provide me with support?"

There was a brief silence (and a barely audible sigh) in the other side before Junpei replied.

"...I've spotted the enemy, Hoshino-senpai. Directly southeast of your current facing position, the enemy is lodged in the Akihabara Dai Building – I can't get any visuals in the floor the sniper is located in though. In terms of distance, it's roughly 1,200m from your location... And senpai, _please_ just call me Iori."

Kirara was momentarily struck speechless at the speed that Junpei had gathered the information.

"Hoshino-senpai?"

"Did you just read my mind, Iori-kun? Or is it that easy to get the information?"

Not even the support personnel of Inquesta could hope to get such information as quickly as she needed it especially in a situation such as this. At the very least, she would need roughly five or ten minutes before the information would come about, and even then, the accuracy isn't the same as the one that Junpei had pointed out.

"It isn't easy, but I've already secured all cameras within Akihabara at this point. It only takes an application of my previously used codes along with using the effects of echoes from the rifle itself. I might have been able to pin point the exact altitude the sniper is in, but all nearby cameras with higher than normal sound recording capabilities had been damaged or is too far from the source for it to be of any use."

He paused for a second. If Kirara focused her ears more intently she could almost hear the multitude of taps resounding from a key board.

"Based on the trajectory, accuracy and speed of the three shots fired – and yes there, was apparently an earlier shot a few minutes ago – I can deduce that taking a direct path is not recommended. If the rifle was illegally modified, there's no telling how many shots are required before the sniper needs to reload."

Junpei's reply was the same as always, indicating no hard ship from his part. The only thing that Kirara could detect was a bit of frustration, but the existence of the frustration surprised her nonetheless.

Was this the capability of the only support personnel that Kousaka Kyousuke, the infamous Black Ops of Busou Tantei's Japanese Branch, approved off?

It was a mystery why Kyousuke had very few people working for him and even more of a mystery as to why he never looked for or asked for a partner.

Many knows the danger that Black Ops members faced when entering a mission, due to said missions being considered 'suicide missions' to members of the formal authorities and even to those of Butei, very few ever considered partnering with them. If someone did partner with a Black Ops member from the very start of a mission and survived, then chances are, they would be marked (if not officially, then unofficially) as the Black Ops' partner.

In the case with support personnel, it was a case of finding talents that would aide them in the completion of a mission without actually being with the Black Ops member.

It was simply impossible to find someone who holds all the things that one might need to survive a mission, but for whatever reason, Kyousuke had chosen Junpei to be his support personnel after having a total of three conversations with the perverted young man prior to the induction.

Seeing Junpei's skill for herself, she was soundly impressed. Not only with Junpei himself, but as to what criteria Kyousuke had used to judge who would best benefit him.

"So that means, a frontal assault would be next to impossible."

"Kyousuke-senpai might actually still go with the frontal assault, but not to downplay your skill,that would be ill advised with your current level of ability."

"No offense taken." Kirara replied, dashing low towards a nearby building. "I know Akihabara like the back of my hand – I'll find a way to that sniper one way or another."

She was part of Inquesta after all, not Assault. Normally, she wouldn't participate in a situation that practically guaranteed a battle at some point – but there was no one else that could take action in such short notice. Kyousuke might be in Akihabara at this point, but if what Junpei alluded to was correct, that meant he was also occupied.

As good as Kyousuke is at his job, he simply couldn't be in two places at once.

"Before you go senpai, I must warn you to finish the battle quickly and evacuate the area."

"Does this have something to do with the authorities coming in trying to have a go at fixing things?"

Kirara didn't exactly mean to belittle the officials, but in these situations, it was clear they were out of their depth and that any action from their part would only hinder their own progress.

It didn't help that the authorities would most likely arrest them if they ever saw them, regardless of the fact that they were the ones trying to fix things.

"Not exactly... I can't mention it at this point as it's mostly speculation but- _KSSHHH_"

"Iori-kun?"

Before she could check her phone, a pulse was felt.

The headache inducing wave passed through her, but it was far stronger than the last. It was enough so that had she been in any other situation, she would have fallen to the ground clutching her head. In the current situation however, she merely clutched it and kept one eye open.

The pulse was long lasting, that despite the wave passing over her and its end being met – which was a lengthy ten seconds later – her head was still ringing from the pain.

"What was that...?"

Looking at her phone, she wasn't surprised to find that it had died. It was a conventional phone after all, and it had only been slightly modified so that it had the basic security that most phones of other Butei had. It didn't have the durability said phones had.

The pulse also affected electronics negatively, and her phone, despite surviving the earlier wave, wasn't designed to survive a pulse of that length or strength.

It was almost as if the pulse was directly targeted to them.

"Woo~ I would so love to check how Kyo-kun and Kuroneko-chi are doing, but it looks like I'll be having my hands too full to solve any problems but my own!"

* * *

><p>Bryan Lane rubbed his eyes as he took a good look at the smoking crater that the explosion originated in. Due to its strength and type of explosive used, it was hard to see anything through the smoke and it had temporarily blinded him due to the flash despite closing his eyes.<p>

The fog that had no doubt obscured the vision of the infamous Black Ops of Butei didn't affect him and his partner mainly due to that fog being part of their normal tactics of combat. Not only that, it would be pretty stupid of them to be caught in an illusion that they themselves had created.

"That wasn't so hard." His partner, Kaius, remarked. "That black ops dude probably just got lucky in his other missions – heh, his luck probably ended with meeting us, eh?"

Bryan however, didn't share his partner's enthusiasm and had his gun and knife at the ready.

The 'fog' created by his partner made those that had fallen victim to it to view a world with limited vision. Sometimes, those who had thought too hard on the implications would actually fear a form of water manipulation. With most of those whom they fought never actually figuring out the truth until it was too late, it became a selling point that a certain rich man had actually personally hired them to take out a torn from their side. Regardless of the reward however, Bryan had only taken the job because of who he was going to fight.

Unlike Kaius, Bryan was never in it for the money. Sure it made a great deal of money that he would never have to worry about going hungry or running out of supplies, but that had only been a bonus of taking mercenary work. He was in it for the thrill of fighting and _killing_.

There was nothing like the sight of seeing someone's life drain from their eyes as they desperately clawed to live. It was especially more thrilling if he could douse the battle spirit that some showcased before they would inevitably fall.

It was for that reason that Bryan frowned at the usage of explosives. Unless the results could be seen, like the flying of body parts and guts due to the use of an explosion, explosives in general drained the fun out of a killing.

His partner twirled his chain for a bit before walking towards the explosion to cut the head of the remains of their opponent to show their success of the mission.

Bryan didn't let that happen though.

"What?"

"Idiot!" He reprimanded. "We're not sure if he actually died in that explosion! For all we know he could be -"

That was all Bryan could say before a sharp punch impacted him in the gut and in fluid motion, was thrown harshly towards a nearby wall. Upon impacting the wall however, a foot impacted the side of his head sending him careening towards a trash can.

It was a quick three hit combo that lasted no longer than five seconds.

With Bryan's eyes closed, as he pushed himself off of the floor, a bodily crunch entered his ears as the sound of his partner crumpling by the adjacent wall was heard.

Taking into account how long it took to nearly incapacitate him, and then his partner who was now groaning rather pathetically by the wall, it had all been under 10 seconds.

Bringing out his gun, Bryan lifted it and fired without actually aiming. He shot a small glance to his opponent to regain his bearings, and was surprised to find that the boy in front of him held no knives – but was nonetheless unscathed from an explosion so close to his position.

Movement of feet could be heard, and he dashed towards the sound with his knife up to bear. If they couldn't take down the opponent through illusions, then simple brute force should be enough!

With quick and solid movement, knife and gun was used in tandem that to the outside viewer, it would seem like the gun itself was another melee weapon to be used. Guns, were supposed to be used from medium to far range, but using it in close range was nearly unheard of.

Of course, to the general populace that is.

But Bryan's opponent, was most definitely not part of the normal general populace – and it showed as with his hands alone, he parried while delivering debilitating strikes towards the joints of his arms. Each strike sent shockwaves of pain through his arms, which was only amplified by his constant attempts to attack his opponent.

Close combat was something that Bryan prided himself in, with the odd combination of wielding a gun in one hand and a knife at the other, many combatants found themselves trying to catch the flow of attack but only failing to do so as by the time they could even grasp anything about his fighting style, the opponent was either dead or nearing it.

In the few seconds of exchange, Bryan knew that close combat was a no go with the skill that the boy – no, _man_ was showing. This was not the first time that this had occurred as he was a mercenary and had fought many types of targets, he had even fought masters of martial arts that made knives seem like a simple extension of one's arm instead of a sharp weapon that could easily cut open flesh.

The case at the present was much similar, but it seemed as if a prolonged close quarter combat with the foe in front of him would only lead to his eventual demise.

Bryan had done his research of course, in the underworld, the exploits of the infamous Black Ops of Busou Tantei could easily be heard through rumors and such rumors were often the only thing that allowed anyone to know of the unique branch of Busou Tantei. As, when the Black Ops were called unto action, the foes that they fought never left to see the light of day (more so when compared to the average Butei).The only information that could be picked up about the Black Ops were that they could supposedly defeat a small army on their own and that, should one actually see a glimpse of said member, it was a sign that one's death was near.

In a sense, the appearance of Busou Tantei's Black Ops was nearly synonymous with _death _to those who were unfortunate enough to be the side that they were fighting against.

With such rumors encompassing the actions of Butei and especially those of Black Ops, Bryan was sure that should he lose this bout with the man before him, he would never be able to see another day out in the open.

His thoughts, turbulent as the stormy sea, was broken as his distracted mind was forced to focus on the fact that the man before him had finally decided to quicken the pace and had impacted his kidney with his left palm after delivering a debilitating blow on his right elbow, causing it to painfully and forcefully bend on itself.

He would have most likely been out of the fight if his partner didn't decide to intervene right then and there.

A chain flew through the air, and would have impaled their enemy at the arms if the man didn't backtracked half a step to avoid the blow.

Hope welled up, that, with his partner up, they could set up a simple illusion that would allow them to escape as fighting was out of the question especially so if the man before them could escape an explosion without a mark that indicated he had even been caught in one.

"Kaius! The illusion, set up an illusion!" He barked to his partner as he trained his gun towards their foe. He didn't dare fire as it might hasten his defeat, seeing as it would force his opponent forward. If this was against ordinary foes, he wouldn't even need to contemplate if an opponent would be able to dodge a bullet from such a range.

"Illusions – a supernatural phenomena that can affect one or a multitude of senses to perceive something that isn't truly there." The man uttered, catching the nail of the chain before it could completely pass him. "Illusionists, that is those that uses illusions, can affect a specific person or set up a bounded field that affects those who enter the premises with the exception of those keyed into the field."

The man took a casual step forward, discarding the nail that he held onto the ground. Strangely, despite having dropped the nail, his partner didn't reel the chain back in.

"A single action illusion requires constant focus from the illusionist to remain active and in some cases, so that it won't be detected as an illusion. A bounded field illusion on the other hand doesn't require the concentration required to pull off a single action illusion, and would thus be ideal for an ambush."

Bryan was peripherally aware of such an information – his partner had used a bounded field illusion before and he had in fact asked to set one up in this exact location in the case that things went awry and they could make an escape without having a single action illusion be traced unto them by the Supernatural Branch of Busou Tantei.

It was a wonder why his partner hadn't activated it – was he that insistent in beating the foe in front of them? He would have stole a glance to his partner to decipher what he was planning, but his instincts were screaming at him to make sure that the man in front of him doesn't escape his vision.

"However," The way the man uttered the word sent a chill down his spine. "'The pulse' would generally destroy any form of bounded field upon its activation."

"Kaius!"

"It's useless."

Upon those words, the man practically _disappeared_ from his sight and in the next moment, he heard a sickening bony crunch as the world tilted before him – then pain, pain that would have made him cry out but an uppercut closed his mouth shut before an elbow strike impacted his gut, knocking the fight out of him.

The pain was blinding, his only chance for escape would be if his partner was able to send up another illu-

"It's over Bryan Lane." The man before him declared, looking down on his fallen body. From his vantage point, the man looked every bit the infamous demon that the rumors painted Black Ops to be. "It had been over the moment you attacked my friend."

The last thing that Bryan saw before darkness overtook his vision as he succumbed to the pain, was that his partner was similarly slumped on the ground, blood trailing off of his mouth.

If he recalled correctly, the man before him had smiled before he engaged them.

What did that mean exactly?

Did he... did he go easy with them? That the fight only lasted as long as it did because he wanted it to...?

* * *

><p>"Don't bother moving."<p>

It was a quiet male voice and judging by what Kuroneko could feel from the cold metal pressed against the back of her head, that the man was at least several inches taller than her.

Raising her hand slowly as a show of compliance, she wasn't surprised to note several men going to pick up the two that she was sent to pick up and send to another area. She had placed a tracker on Saori earlier in the day, but she hadn't placed one on her senpai's sister.

There was a high likelihood that they'll be taken to the same place – wherever that is – but in these kinds of situations where there's little information to go on, it's best not to assume that's true.

In any case, she had more immediate things to worry about.

As the man had made no attempts to move despite the fact that they were now the only ones within the room.

"Aren't we going to follow?"

"...you're awfully calm for someone who's in gun point."

"Trembling in fear would only give you a reason to shoot me."

Kuroneko felt the barrel of the gun pressed harder onto the back of her head, the force nearly making her take a step forward.

"Who are you?" The man asked, confusion evident in his voice.

"Oh? Trying to get to know me?" Kuroneko replied with a question of her own, vaguely amused. "Or perhaps you intend to _take_ me now that you're alone?"

It was a possibility, regardless of how unpleasant.

"That would be useless."

"?"

"I don't know who you are, but the fact that you're with that boy is enough."

"'_Boy'_... pray tell as to whom you're referring to."

"Don't play dumb. There has only been one male with you throughout your excursion – and that's Butei's Black Ops!"

The words of the man confirmed the thought that this was a coordinated attack, rather than several groups taking advantage of the opportunity.

"Black Ops? Did someone who has a grudge on senpai spread such a rumor?" Kuroneko said, her tone of voice sounding surprise while her facial expression remained impassive. "Senpai _is_ rather charismatic when he wants to be, so I don't doubt that he had rubbed others the wrong way when he gets motivated."

It would have been a mistake, but then the one pointing the gun at her was directly behind her and no reflective surface was present for her to see her attacker (and the flip side should hold true).

"Someone rich and important wants him dead – hired several groups. He knows that boy personally, so don't play dumb, I know you're somehow related to all this." A clicking sound was heard, that due to the proximity, it could have only come from one object. "I may be wrong, but that man had only asked for those two and you're apparently not one of them."

Kuroneko gave a mental equivalent of a sigh of relief despite the fact that she was only seconds from having her blood painting the isles.

She was somewhat doubtful she could have obtained as much information as she could with her current position, but even without eye contact and having a position that would allow her to naturally squeeze more information, she had still managed to gather something.

The only thing that was left was to get out of her current predicament.

"You're new to this aren't you?" Kuroneko muttered, her tone approaching pity.

"What?"

A crash was heard directly behind Kuroneko, the man pointing the gun at Kuroneko whipped his head around to look at the crash.

"Unfortunately... I'm not."

It was a mistake.

Not even a moment after the man's eyesight had left Kuroneko's body, Kuroneko had turned around and moved her hands, her fingers extended – a thin, nearly invisible string becoming momentarily visible as light reflected from it due to the sudden movement that it made illusion-like distortions to appear from locations in which the string dislodged itself from.

Kuroneko gave a light twirl, the nearly invisible strings easily encasing and entangling itself onto the man's body. Some of the strings easily dug through the man's long sleeved shirt, and some only stopped once blood was drawn.

The man yelped, his gun falling to the floor in surprise. The man tried to struggle, but it only made the string dig further into his skin, drawing the string deeper into his flesh. It wasn't exactly painful, the string was thin to the point that cuts were only visible due to drawing blood – but moving about and forcing the string to cut more flesh from _within_ the cuts would incite even more pain had they just remained in place.

"I'm afraid you have no further use." Kuroneko said to the man. "Our identities _must_ be kept secret after all... and you've already told me all I could possibly know."

It would provide a mess, but untangling the strings would take far too long.

And she had wasted enough time.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes:<strong>

Happy New Year everyone!

Well, I did say in the last chapter that I would update twice before the year's end... but I seriously didn't expect my laptop's hard drive to break on me. Not only did I lose all of my files, due to circumstances, I couldn't even begin writing until several days after Christmas!

After nearly a month of being unable to use a computer, it took me a while to restart this chapter...

Anyway, a lot is happening and this chapter (and maybe the chapter after) will be set up for things to come. I'm not entirely sure how things played out here, this is my first time writing a scene like this after all... so I'm trying new things to see if I can write something well with it. As for certain information like building locations in Akihabara or the effective range of rifles - _don't_ take my word for it. I did research, but I'm unsure of the accuracy of said research.

The next chapter... I can't say when it would come out. This year of college is the time I would be working on my thesis, so I'd be busy from here on out. Hopefully I'll be able to update sometime within the next four months.

Constructive Criticism is welcome as always. I'll try my best to edit things if I do agree with the suggestion or correction (the update of a chapter that needs correcting might take some time though). Since I don't exactly have a beta, I might have overlooked things without realizing it.


	11. Decisions and Support

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii wake ga nai or its characters. I also do not own the characters that come from other series such as Persona or Heavy Object that can be recognized here. The only thing I do own is the general plot of events I have written.

**Edit Date: 6/30/2014** - Well, this was an over due small edit. Given what I edited here, I may edit (once I get motivated) previous chapters that holds the same problem.

* * *

><p>"How are the preparations?"<p>

A youthful white haired young man asked, tipping the glass of wine that he held by his hands to his lips. The red liquid shook lightly, portraying a calm and silent sea.

From the laptop that was perched at the table, the voice of a stoic man echoed through. The expression of the man within the screen also held the stern and stoic demeanor that his voice carried.

"Almost complete. There was a slight deviation in the schedule, but all the needed factors are within the area."

The young man stretched lightly, placing the glass of wine by the table as he observed the setting sun.

"I suppose you could call it good fortune that we have all the things we need to start."

The man within the screen didn't reply, at least not right away.

"You look like you want to ask me something, William." The young man said, amused. "Don't hold yourself back, ask away. You're as important as the professor in all this."

"Are we abandoning them?"

It took a while before the young man figured out what the stoic man was alluding to, and once he did, he gave a heartful laugh. One that sounded as if he was laughing at a joke the other man made.

"Does it bother you?"

William didn't answer.

"Do not hold regret, William neither should you pity them." A slight static entered the screen and for a moment, the connection was cut. It wasn't long however, until the screen went back up and the ever stoic man had remained in the same position as if the cut in connection had been a minor inconvenience. "It is in their fortune for being called by us; it is in their fortune that they fight for us."

The young man paused briefly, taking the moment to moisten his lips with the near empty glass of wine.

"With our goals at hand, don't you believe that they are crusaders?"

William's expression tightened minutely at that.

"Calling them crusaders would be stretching it too far."

"Ah, my mistake." The young man jovially corrected. "Regardless of their actions here, they do not know what they are fighting for. They're merely motivated by their own lust, greed and perhaps mistaken pride."

Pride against an opponent that has been proven from time and time again to be simply too much for those who had brazenly and recklessly challenged them. Their delusions of grandeur, and testing of their mettle when the chances of a 'next time' was severely lessened given the track record of their foe.

"They will die."

It was a statement that needed no elaboration.

"They would die regardless if we sent them or not. If not by ours, then those who pursues us or will pursue us."

"Some of them do not think so." William said, disagreeing.

"Then it is their mistaken delusions." The young man said, a smile entering his lips. "They are dangerous elements that would not do well in the future. Honestly, they blew their chances for redemption when they had carelessly accepted my request and had only asked money, of all things."

There was no hostile or malicious intent laced within the young man's words despite the meaning of it. It was as if he was merely stating a fact that didn't hold the lives of others on the line. It was indifferent, one that seemed to imply a rightness or simply that something wasn't wrong with his assertion.

It was hard to tell, but the man on the other end simply remained silent as if silently agreeing.

"...it seems that the original objective had been accomplished."

The stoic man said after a moment's silence.

"Hmm... you say that a certain Kousaka Kirino was part of those captured, correct?" Seeing the man nod, he continued. "Get a sample from the both of them and have 'our' men remain in standby. You have little time in regards to that, but those people would be great canon fodders once the inevitable assault arrives. Try and take it before they do."

"...as you wish."

The line went dead as the words were uttered.

* * *

><p>With the immediate foe defeated, Kyousuke clicked his tongue in distaste as he clenched and unclenched his fist. He had been unnecessarily careless during that bout, and he had lost another pair of his specialized knives. He could always ask for more, but it wasn't like he was in a situation that he could casually procure one.<p>

He hadn't exactly brought along his guns either, seeing as it would have been troublesome trying to smuggle it through the security of the train station. Now, Kyousuke felt the urge to punch himself for his apparent stupidity.

Never mind the fact that no one expected this to happen, seeing as the main purpose of his excursion into Akihabara was merely to indulge Kirino's whims, but he should have learned by now that it was situations like these that could trouble even the most hardened veterans.

Turning his eyes towards the cracked door that held Kirino and Saori's unconscious forms, he was only mildly surprised of Kuroneko stepping out of the room. Seeing the lack of anything that would indicate she was carrying someone, Kyousuke frowned and rushed over to her side.

"What happened?"

Seeing Kuroneko frown lightly didn't give Kyousuke a good feeling.

"They were captured."

Kyousuke would have grimaced, but instead, he just nodded and motioned for Kuroneko to continue as he began his way out of the damaged hallway.

"I've placed a tracker on Saori-san, and I assume that your sister is being taken to the same place." Kuroneko procured her cellphone as she brought up a map. "The signal isn't too strong however, seeing as the 'pulse' had activated twice within fifteen minutes."

Kuroneko's phone might have been made to withstand the pulse, but the tracker wasn't made to withstand consecutive pulses. It was already a surprise that it was still transmitting.

Given the nature of what was happening right now, Kyousuke knew that he would have to make a decision in how he would handle this situation. While he wanted nothing more than to rush in and save his sister and Saori, but there was no telling of what was going on in regards to the pulse activating twice.

Once was understandable, but twice and with such a large range seeing as Kyousuke couldn't quite tell where the source was despite experiencing it more than once, meant that something else was going on that could potentially have bigger repercussions should it be left alone.

"You should go senpai."

"?"

"I'll handle the matters regarding Saori-san and your sister. It was my negligence that allowed them to be kidnapped. It's only natural that I try to fix my mistake."

"But -"

"Do not worry." Kuroneko interrupted, as she gave him a calm and serene smile. "I have a general idea of where the two might have been taken even without the tracker. You're one of their targets remember? So if you came along, rescuing the two would be more difficult."

Kyousuke still wasn't convinced seeing as he could easily dispatch just about any one that was sent against him.

"...and you must have already realized haven't you? That whatever is happening that would have caused for those pulses to occur, it wouldn't bode well for any of us especially so... if it happens again."

Kyousuke sighed at Kuroneko's words.

She was right. If he went with her to rescue Kirino and Saori while ignoring what had been happening that he wasn't in the know of yet, it might give rise to a danger that would have far more wide reaching effects than what was currently occurring. In a sense, he would be putting the cart before the horse – he was the only one that could safely handle whatever the unknown was.

There was no way he would send Kuroneko in his place to handle the unknown.

"I'm sorry for relying on you to do this, Kuroneko."

"No, I should apologize for letting it go this far."

Kyousuke didn't reply. He didn't really blame Kuroneko; he too had been caught unaware.

Turning towards what he deemed to be the source, Kyousuke made to dash but was stopped by Kuroneko before making it even a meter away.

"Senpai!"

Stopping, and looking towards Kuroneko, a flash of silver caught his eyes before he instinctively grasped at the object.

"I figured that you might need it."

Giving a confident grin as he sheathed the procured item, he turned towards his destination.

At least he wasn't weaponless any longer.

* * *

><p>Multi-tasking, or the ability to do multiple tasks at the same time, was something that Iori Junpei didn't participate in too often.<p>

With perhaps the exception of playing video games and doing his weekly reports, Junpei hadn't done it enough to be considered an expert at it. In the case of the reports, it was more of him spending 80% of his attention on the video game and copying and pasting from his previous reports then adding stuff to make it more 'recent'. And that was only 10% of his attention, the other 10% was on the forums he managed about the most recent visual novels.

So while he had done it as a means to maximize his gaming time, Junpei hadn't done it so much in application to Butei work. It was in rare and well expected occurrences that Junpei would have been forced to multi-task to assist Kyousuke in his missions. At the very least, he had come to anticipate that he would need to use such a skill whenever Kyousuke was involved with a mission, regardless of its difficulties.

If there was one thing that Junpei learned being Kyousuke's support personnel, was that even the most 'safe' mission had a high likelihood to turning to something right out of every Butei's nightmares. That is, a simple mission changing from a safe C or B rank to a dangerous S rank or higher mission.

He didn't know if the higher ups knew that the missions Kyousuke was being sent to had a potential of shifting so suddenly or that Kyousuke had the sheer misfortune of that occurring to him much more frequently than anyone else. But fact of the matter was, it _did_ happen and will happen again in the future.

That said, this was probably the first time that Junpei had encountered a situation where Kyousuke wasn't even in a mission and he had somehow found himself in an A rank or even S rank situation.

The Japanese branch of Butei had just been mobilized to take care of a threat in the area of Akihabara a quarter of an hour ago. All nearby members that weren't of rank A or higher were assigned to close the area of to officials and civilians alike as discrete as possible while those of S rank – namely, Kyousuke and one other, were assigned to eliminate the threat.

Damage control was all but impossible, seeing as the damage had gone beyond something that could be cleanly swept under the rug.

Hoshino Kirara and Gokou Ruri, who weren't of S Rank in Assault or of the Supernatural Branch, were given the green light on remaining in the field as the former had the place under her jurisdiction and had thus already engaged the enemy, while Ruri was similar in the sense that she had the duty to see the observation target to safety.

Although that was the case, the key person to hopefully ending the immediate crisis hadn't yet been contacted as to what the higher ups had decided. With the pulse wrecking havoc to communication devices and personnel alike, it wasn't a mystery as to why that was so difficult.

"Junpei! Have you made contact with Kousaka-san as of yet?"

A fellow support member, Amagi Yukiko, asked her hands flying through the keyboard while she simultaneously gave commands to the members she was supporting.

"Negative! The last pulse knocked the direct link away! I'm still trying to get a pinpoint in his location!"

Junpei replied, knocking some of the papers from his desk as he searched it for a certain flash drive. At the same time, he relayed several coordinates to those stationed at the north to head over to the west end to stall the incoming police.

Even if Junpei was Kousaka Kyousuke's support personnel, and thus his capabilities were often focused for said person whenever he was in a mission, the sudden emergency had even him being allocated for general communications until all of or most of those assigned for such a task had been gathered. Amagi Yukiko was actually Hoshino Kirara's support personnel, but with communications with Kirara being cut by the recent pulse, she had been allocated to general communications until Kirara could contact them once again.

"Have those of the Western Tokyo jurisdiction replied to our queries?"

Junpei shot back, trying to get the broadcast signal back up and perform a direct connection with Kyousuke's phone.

"Nothing as of the moment, although those of Eastern Tokyo had already covered the west end of Akihabara."

"Have you made contact with Gokou-san?"

"No, but who's in charge of her?"

Junpei might be knowledgeable, but that was only in things regarding Kyousuke's work. He was relatively oblivious to everything else unless it was going to somehow affect Kyousuke's mission or with his chances with girls.

Junpei never did take a rejection lying down.

In terms of what Junpei did know about Kuroneko, it would simply be that she seemed to talk a lot with the supervisor along with the resident enchantress.

"She's not here yet." Yukiko replied. "So can you contact her when you get the chance?"

"Will do."

Kuroneko might not be under Junpei's jurisdiction, but she, even if she would deny it, was still a friend of his. Not to mention that Kuroneko was one of the few people in the Japanese Butei branch that had the highest potential in becoming Kyousuke's partner.

Turning his head towards the screen, which had several screens up, one of the screens that depicted the state of the Akihabara section to the public had several news reporter demanding towards the Government officials that were on the way to explain what was happening. That wouldn't have been surprising, if it weren't for the fact that not even the police were in the know or were allowed to go in the area.

Junpei had to wince at the public coverage that the incident is getting. Even if Kyousuke could somehow solve the problem within two or three hours, that didn't mean it would solve all of the problems. With nearly all of the nearby Butei personnel mobilized to either help with the crisis or prevent the entering of anyone within the cordoned area, questions would be asked and a lot of time would be given to making sure everything will be swept under the rug.

A similar case had happened in the past, and while this incident wasn't as bad as then, it still was the first in a long time that a case such as this had gotten public coverage within Japan soil.

"Ah! I finally got it!"

With that exclamation, Junpei immediately brought up the connection and after confirming that the line had been picked up, the voice of Kyousuke emitted through Junpei's headphones.

"Junpei?"

"Kyo-senpai! Am I glad you picked up!"

He really was, considering that he along with one another was crucial for the safe ending of this mission.

"Glad to hear from you too Junpei."

Looking at Kyousuke's position on the map, it seemed like he was heading towards the source of the pulse.

It was odd that he already knew where to go given that the only trace it could possibly give would be the tell tale effects it had on the machinery within the area and the fact that radio signals tended to be repulsed by the pulse. For a human however, it shouldn't be possible to determine the location without outside support.

Was it coincidence?

"There had been two pulses in the last fifteen minutes, we haven't been able to get a good look at the surrounding area for hostiles apart from what Hoshino-senpai encountered..."

"She also encountered someone?"

By the sound of it, it looks like Kyousuke had also encountered a fight of his own. Given that Kuroneko had been with Kyousuke during the majority of the time Kyousuke had been in Akihabara, it was clear that they had encountered more than one foe for them to take so long to get moving.

"I've lost contact with Hoshino-senpai, and the surveillance cameras within the area had all but died out in the second pulse, so we haven't been able to confirm if Hoshino-senpai had managed to take out the sniper."

"So there was a sniper, then..."

By the looks of it, Kyousuke seemed to have anticipated that.

"Yes, and by the looks of it, a modified one to increase the maximum range. I would like you to proceed with caution, but with the current state -"

Without warning however, another message was sent through the public channel.

"Incoming surge detected!"

"What?!"

The exclamation had the already frenzied support personnel sending replies even without everyone confirming of its existence. There was no need as at this state, they couldn't act slow if it was true. If they ignored it and they were wrong, the situation would go from 'nightmarish clean up' to 'nigh impossible clean up'.

The current state of affairs was already in a slippery slope – anything could send the situation down either end.

Not even ten seconds after the detection of the surge, all signals and connections towards the Akihabara section was wiped out. Even the public channel was filled with static before the maintenance personnel were able to put it back up.

By the look of things, the public media hadn't been able to recover as quickly as they had.

"Senpai?"

Trying to reconnect yet failing to do so, Junpei could only slam his fist down on the desk.

"Iori."

Before Junpei could go back to getting a connection with Kyousuke again, a familiar voice had him turning his head around to face the one who had called his name.

"S-supervisor?!"

Many of those around him also shared looks of shock at the person who had entered the command room.

It was no surprise, seeing as the person in front of him was the esteemed supervisor that was essentially the commander of the Japanese branch in all but name. She was a rare beauty that despite being in her mid-twenties, she didn't look a day older than someone who had just reached their adult hood. Her long silver hair, tied up into a ponytail and with a face that was clearly not Asian, she casually looked around as if dismissing the state of events as something normal and nothing to be alarmed off – she continued in a calm voice.

"Forget trying to get a direct connection with Kyousuke. Just transmit an encrypted message through the channel that details the situation and go assist with the purging of information within the Akihabara district along with the stalling of air forces. Kyousuke's no longer a child that needs everything being told to him."

Even if Junpei wanted to refute that, and say that he was Kyousuke's support personnel, thus it was his duty to assist Kyousuke – he couldn't. Junpei could not because this was a command from someone even higher than Kyousuke in the level of command, nor was it because he agreed.

It was simply because the woman knew Kyousuke far more than he did.

"What are you looking at? Get moving! That surge had temporarily jammed signals at the edge of Akihabara if it didn't destroy it at the get go! So prevent it from going online and coordinate those of the Kyoto Branch to start the disruption!"

She was Froleytia Capistrano. She had been the one that recruited Kyousuke to Busou Tantei and the one who had trained the young boy to one of the most well known S Rank Special Ops within the whole of Busou Tantei.

She was the supervisor that everyone within the Busou Tantei Japanese branch respected.

And if she was here, this crisis looked far less grim than it had before.

* * *

><p>Biting off a curse as another pulse made the tracker she had placed on Saori nearly useless, Kuroneko pushed herself off of the wall and pocketed her phone.<p>

The pulse would knock out normal people rather quickly mainly at the intense incomprehensible feeling that runs through a person whenever the pulse went anywhere near a person's vicinity. Busou Tantei agents were often given training to withstand those effects and could thus turn the would be knock out effects into a heavy headache that would last for the duration of the pulse and a few seconds after. With further training, it could be easily passed off as a slight (yet painful) shock.

What Kuroneko had just witnessed had gone beyond her own expectations as she used a nearby wall to maintain her balance.

"This is getting a bit unbearable..."

She muttered quietly, as she picked up the pace towards the last recorded area.

From what she had gathered, it seemed that Saori had been taken to a three story building that was currently empty due to it being for lease for the last three months. At least, that's what she had gathered as she had passed by that building several times in her last few visits to Akihabara. While there exists more building with the same description, it was unique in the sense that the roof area was certainly large enough for a helicopter to safely land on.

If this had been a planned assault, it would have been a given that they had a pick up point once everything had been done and over with and briefly, she was worried that they had started the extraction making the rescue impossible.

But that worry had been immediately quashed.

There were no sounds of any vehicle nearby starting up, and the last pulse would have no doubt made it impossible for a safe take off.

All thoughts came to screeching halt however, as a flash of silver made it passed Kuroneko's peripheral forcing her running form into a forward roll. Raising her skirt upon recovering, she immediately took out her Beretta 92 as she faced her opponent.

"I thought it was just an otaku that got lucky, but it seems you have experience, eh?"

No different from the ones she had encountered before, Kuroneko didn't bother to give her opponent an answer as she fired with two bullets – one aimed at the heart and the other at the head.

The opponent tilted his head upon the first, and didn't bother dodging the second.

It was a careless maneuver, but the fact that he merely flinched and didn't keel over, dead from the piercing of his heart meant that he had a form of bullet proof armor.

It didn't matter.

Nimbly rushing forward, taking the flinch of the man as an opening, she fired a shot towards the opponent's knee.

The bullet easily tore through the brown pants the man wore eliciting a cry of pain from the man, but Kuroneko wasn't done – upon reaching the opponent's form, she slammed a palm towards the man's elbow to disarm him and upon taking the knife that had been used against her, she used the handle to slam it towards the man's neck.

There was a loud crack, but Kuroneko paid it no heed as the man's pitiful screams immediately died down upon reaching the concrete.

The encounter didn't last even half a minute. Yet...

"Oh my, it seems I have prematurely gathered their attention."

Surely enough, half a dozen men with various weaponry surrounded her. Based on the expression of one that was aiming his gun at her, it was clear they hadn't expected anything like this.

It was a given really, a single shot could possibly be heard miles away seeing as to how quiet the normally busy streets of Akihabara was. Noise could be easily picked up in the quiet streets and given how any noise could be perceived as a threat since all 'normal' people within the vicinity should be knocked out, her opponents were quick to react.

The opponents were positioned in a form of hexagon, where each men were in a specific corner to block of escape. It seemed unnecessary for a single foe, but it seems that the mere thought that the opponent in front of them wasn't normal was resounding within their heads.

They weren't wrong.

"D-Drop your gun!" One of the men shouted. "I – I'm warning you - !"

Kuroneko didn't heed it.

Even with at least three guns aiming at her body, and being at the center of six opponents, Kuroneko didn't hesitate as she shifted her grip with the knife held by her left hand to grasp it by the blade. With a quick flick of the wrist, the knife flew, end over end towards a man holding what looked like a Sub Machine Gun.

There was a pained cry as the other two opened fire while the other three fumbled to take out their own guns, as they dropped their knives to the floor in their haste.

They shouldn't have.

Dropping to the floor, the first barrage of bullets zipped over Kuroneko's head – the bullets missing their target, but meeting their mark upon another person's flesh.

Whether it was oversight, or simply covering their bases so that escape was impossible, they had positioned themselves in the point that it was possible for friendly fire to occur. The shots fired weren't fatal however – it might have been if it had met its original mark, but Kuroneko was shorter than those gathered and the aim had thus been placed lower.

Thus, when the shots were fired, the angle of the shots had either met the feet or legs of those in the opposite end.

Those who hadn't been in the opposite end of those who fired the first volley, had immediately acted and moved aside to assault Kuroneko.

It was an anticipated tactic, and Kuroneko acted accordingly by adjusting her aim and firing at the most likely to fire first. Surprise movements and fast reflexes aside, in this distance, it was near impossible to miss and thus the battle would end on who would act first.

A quickdraw battle that had already started with Kuroneko's preemptive actions, and one she planned on keeping.

Another foe fell upon her first barrage, but she didn't allow herself the reprieve of remaining in place as doing so would be clearly suicidal. Side-stepping to insure that aiming at her was a little more difficult, she fired another shot towards one of her foes that were set to take aim – the shot pierced through the man's thumb, a cry of pain emerging from the man's mouth, his gun dropping to the floor as he clutched the pierced finger.

The third and final person who hadn't been affected by friendly fire or her shots at this point, made to rush at her with his knife.

A stupid action in hindsight, and one that was made in the heat of things.

Predictably, the attacked missed and Kuroneko's shoulder made its way towards the man's abdomen, then upon using the opponent's momentum, easily flipped the man towards the ground despite the man holding more than twice her own weight.

The man met the concrete heavily, a bony crack resounding within the air. The pain immediately knocked the man out.

"That... was pitiful."

Kuroneko muttered to herself.

It took less than a minute, but all six that had surrounded Kuroneko had been either killed or incapacitated. The outcome had been expected, and even though Kuroneko wasn't a Rank A Assault, the battle had been laughably easy.

Laughable, but it didn't remove her focus from what she had set out to do.

What Kuroneko had just applied was the most basic principle of Assault – that was to _keep_ the momentum.

Do not stop under any circumstances, do not let unneeded thoughts or hesitation to take root – attack and never let the opponent to grab any hold.

Kuroneko's opponents had already been shocked by her first assault against their comrade, and by ensuring that they don't have enough time to recover and get their bearings, Kuroneko could press the offensive. She needn't fear a planned retaliation as it was clear as day that the opponent weren't experienced enough to have faced a Busou Tantei operative.

Unlike the one that her senpai faced earlier, it seemed that the rest were simply henchmen that had no idea what they had gotten themselves into.

Was the two mercenaries the only one of viable threat? It does make a certain amount of sense seeing as they only really expected her senpai, having gone and greeted him along with recognizing him. That being the case, the two were hardly strong enough to even make her senpai struggle once he got serious.

Ignoring the groans and cries of pain, Kuroneko headed further.

Whatever the case was, it seems that there was more to this incident than meets the eyes. With the few that she had purposely left alive, she hoped that she'd be able to squeeze out some information from them, as unlikely as that is.

* * *

><p>Losing connection with Junpei had been expected, Kyousuke told himself.<p>

It was common really, losing connection at the most crucial moment that is.

Kyousuke didn't really know if that was misfortune or that all of those trying to kill him, whether they knew it or not, were somehow turning on the 'anti-signal-that-would-make-a-mission-more-easier button' at the most correct timing...

Whatever the case, he needed to speed things up. The last pulse was almost too nauseating that he had nearly lost track of himself.

It had been the third pulse, and it took just about half of the total time it took for the second one to be released after the first. While Kyousuke was sure that he could still fight even if he was assaulted by the pulse within battle, if the intervals kept getting smaller, the number of things that Kyousuke had to worry about would also increase.

The pulse was a mechanism that Butei's used as a means of incapacitating infiltrators. It had never actually been deployed outside of the base with the exception of one incident. The reason being, was that it had a far too wide reaching effect that unless the area it was going to be deployed in was devoid of possible innocents, then it would do more harm than good.

Though that was the case, the pulse was _not_ a Butei creation. If that had indeed been the case, a long range countermeasure would have been crafted at this point to stop the pulse from occurring more than once after detection.

Kyousuke shook his head out of his thoughts. Whatever the case, the pulse activating in public vicinity was never good more so if the pulse had occurred more than once.

Turning around in the next intersection, alarms blared within Kyousuke's head as he hastily jumped towards a nearby car for cover.

Had he not done so, a bullet would have made his face beyond recognition.

It was a sniper – he wasn't sure if it was the same sniper that shot at him earlier, or the one that was shooting at Hoshino-senpai or someone else entirely. He couldn't ask for confirmation at this point.

"I must be getting closer, huh..."

Based on the map by his cellphone, the location that he was heading towards to would be in the factory depository. As there are no highrise building within the area of the factories, this meant that the sniper would be hard pressed to aim at him once he makes it a certain distance away.

Under normal situations, Kyousuke would aim to eliminate the threat, but given that whatever was happening that was causing the pulse to occur could potentially open a more serious threat than a sniper aiming for his death, he had to prioritize.

Avoiding the sniper was the main goal, so running close to the buildings would be possible – but this ran the risk of having the sniper shoot through the building.

While it was simply a building, there was no telling if the sniper would make a mistake and accidentally hit one of many incapacitated civilians within the area.

"So a mad run it is..."

Grinning slightly at what he was about to do, he took out the knives that Kuroneko had passed to him.

It was a similar pair of knives to the ones he had lost earlier, and it had the tell-tale signs of the 'cast' enchantment. While a normal one would fare well in Kyousuke's hands, it didn't mean it would last long or be nearly useful enough with all the things he had been through.

Steadying his breathing, one that was shaky in both fear and excitement, his muscles tightened as his perception narrowed and erased everything unnecessary within his mind's eye.

His muscles taut, his blades held in both hands and his eyes and ears sharpened and focused -

Then, he dashed.

Not even a second after he had left his position, a bullet tore through the air with almost unerring accuracy.

Almost being the word as Kyousuke had survived his way through multiple snipers and had seen an A Rank within Butei along with what was entailed with a perfect shot.

The shot that was fired was close – but it simply wasn't enough.

Without even glancing at the direction of the bullet, the bullet whizzed a centimeter below from Kyousuke's nose.

Another shot was quickly fired after the first, and Kyousuke had already crossed several meters worth of distance in the short time it took for the next attack to be aimed. The bullet that came was avoided with a slight flick of his blade that sent the powerful bullet's trajectory minutely off course. His body had bended itself to make way for the shifted trajectory of the bullet.

Shifting the trajectory of a sniper bullet was close to impossible given that such bullets could even pierce through building walls and make the part impacted in a human body explode with the sheer force under it. Perhaps it may have been possible using bullets as a way to bounce the bullet away much like a billiard ball, but Kyousuke didn't have that much confidence in doing so when even the speed of a bullet is beyond his own eyes to perceive.

Kyousuke couldn't really perceive the bullet, no something like that was right next to impossible - but after training with the Sniper division, he had formed his own way of 'perceiving' the bullet as it came.

Depending on the rank of the sniper, the way they take aim also varies.

For instance, a B Rank Sniper would be able to correctly identify the most likely actions that someone would take once they know they are under a sniper assault. It wouldn't be incorrect to call it a form of mind game where the Sniper dictates and manipulates what the opponent is going to do next. For the finishing blow to be executed, the sniper would devise the most likely action an opponent is going to do next and thus fire at the anticipated area.

Based on what Kyousuke could analyze in the last two shots, it was clear to him that the sniper was far from an A Rank Sniper. The Sniper would probably be close to B Rank but not definitively.

_**Bang!**_

Another shot was fired, Kyousuke merely raised his foot diagonally by a few centimeters and the attack aimed at his knees missed and once more shattered the concrete upon impact.

With the current state being a 'mind game', Kyousuke could add his own thoughts into the mix by making his moves easily telegraphed. Feints and false openings were usable against a sniper of B Rank or below, especially in areas of large space and a fair amount of distance was between the sniper and the target. But in occasions such as this, Kyousuke took it a step further.

By giving subtle signals in the telegraphed movements, Kyousuke could coax the other sniper to assume that the next logical step would be what Kyousuke wanted them to take. The sniper didn't know – wouldn't know that their thoughts were quickly mirroring what Kyousuke had thought they would do and even if they do realize it, they would be far too deep into the trap that it would seem even their erratic attempts to get out of it would be all within Kyousuke's perception.

_**Bang! Bang!**_

Two shots fired in rapid succession were shot towards Kyousuke – his pace didn't stop nor was it hindered. The first shot missed its mark by a millimeter by tilting his body ever so slightly, and the second shot missed when he had raised his foot to make avoiding the first shot possible.

One mistake was all it took for Kyousuke to be incapacitated or killed at the spot – even a slight gash would mean his doom. But Kyousuke continued to smile as he continued to move forward, confidence brimming as if it was droplets of water being thrown at him.

What Kyousuke was doing was a unique skill that he had learned upon reaching the rank of A in the Sniper division. A unique skill that subtly 'persuaded' the enemy sniper to take the move that Kyousuke wanted them to do.

A skill that changed the rules of the game whenever an opponent sniper was involved.

Junpei called the skill 'mind control'.

Those in the Sniper Division called it a sniper's nightmare.

The ESP group called it precognition.

But Kyousuke simply referred to it as **Reverse Sniping**.

Using the mentality of a sniper when being sniped upon and turning the waiting game in on it self, it made surviving a sniper assault all the more possible.

The skill didn't work all the time, for those that weren't well versed in sniping, the subtle signals of Reverse Sniping would go over their heads. It was for that matter that the skill really only worked on those of D Rank to A Rank. Those lower wouldn't be able to comprehend it – not that it would matter given that predicting the shots were much more easy – and those higher than A Rank would eventually resort to alternative means of sniping should they catch on.

Running faster and faster, Kyousuke made his way towards the perceived epicenter of the pulse.

As many problems as there are within Akihabara as of the moment, he had to prioritize those that would be of greater threat.

If he didn't, then those collapsed on the road, streets and buildings would all be in danger.

Sighing to himself, Kyousuke continued his way past the Sniper's range.

It seemed like this day wouldn't be any different from any of the A Class and possibly S Class missions he had received in the past.

Although the encrypted message he just received was certainly new.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes:<strong>

It has been a while.

I said around four months, but that had merely been a statement if I was _lucky_ to get any free time during those months. In any case, I survived another semester, but seeing as I'm going to be in my last year of college in the next month or so, I feel that I'd be even more lucky if I get any free time this coming few months.

Yeah, On the Job Training otherwise abbreviated to OJT – I'll be busy alright. That also includes my thesis by the way, which isn't finished.

So I honestly don't know when I'd update next. I'll probably update again sometime before this year ends. Hopefully twice or maybe even thrice.

That aside, we are quickly rushing towards the climax of the Akihabara Arc. As this arc is set up for future conflicts, if you have any questions regarding the plot at this point, it'd be most likely answered at some point in the future.

Oh yeah, in terms of Butei morality – I have alluded it in previous chapters and had pretty much confirmed it last chapter – Butei in this story has the choice of killing or capturing their foes. Unlike Butei of Hidan no Aria where they have articles that state something similar to 'one shall never kill', in this variation it's entirely up to the Butei in question. That said, innocents or stray witnesses should never be harmed or killed regardless of circumstances (more on this in later chapters).

As usual, if there's anything wrong, do state it so I can correct it. So long as I agree with it (as I'm sure I might have overlooked something), then I would do my best to correct it as soon as possible (unless it's from a previous chapter which might take a while to do).


	12. Partial Descent

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii wake ga nai or its characters. I also don't own any of the crossover characters that comes from other material such as Heavy Object, To Aru Majutsu no Index, or AntiMagic Academy: 35th Test Platoon.

* * *

><p>Annihilating the group that had gathered around the building had been done rather easily, Kuroneko thought as she quietly entered the protected building. It wasn't even a matter of skill that the enemies fell to her attack despite holding numbers that would make any law enforcement think twice of engaging.<p>

Apart from the two that had been sent to attack her senpai, none of those gathered could be said to have been hired by someone who explicitly knew who they were up against.

If this were a game, the ones that she had fought would be like the slimes that one goes against in the very beginning of a game. It might have posed a problem in the early months of her induction to Busou Tantei, but now, she was simply too strong.

"Still... something doesn't feel right."

Silently entering the building through the shattered window, Kuroneko was quick to note that, apart from the mess of shattered glass and incapacitated men, nothing was moving from her direct line of sight.

Exercising caution, in case the building had been rigged to blow, she nimbly and quietly checked every corner of the room before moving to the next. There were a few... unfortunate civilians, but those that had found themselves in certain out of the way rooms were left relatively intact. Nevertheless, any and all civilians within the building would most likely fall under deep scrutiny once everything calmed down just to make sure that if there were any civilian connected with the terrorists exists, Busou Tantei would be able to nip the problem from the bud and perhaps find more possible sources that couldn't be extracted from the few that she had left for interrogation.

...given that the terrorists attacked not only her senpai but Akihabara of all places, Kuroneko felt a tad bit vindictive to the terrorists that had popped up.

Scaling the stairs, Kuroneko was relatively sure that the last group of terrorists would be at the roof. There was no reason to move their captives higher up unless they planned to hide here or they planned to make a getaway at some point above ground level.

Since she didn't see any tell-tale sign of a flying vehicle above the building, nor did she hear sounds of a coming or taking off vehicle, Kuroneko was sure that the terrorists hadn't left yet.

_**CRASH!**_

...well, with that sound, Kuroneko couldn't exactly rule out supernatural powers being used as a means of get away.

Bounding up the stairs in quick, almost logic defying leaps, Kuroneko eventually reached the last floor. Quickly opening the door where concrete dust was seeping out of, Kuroneko burst in with her gun, her mind quickly analyzing the situation.

What met her eyes was far different from what she had anticipated.

"A civilian?" The deep voice of the tall European man muttered to himself, before he minutely shook his head. "No, a Butei then."

The European man, wore a simple white long sleeve shirt along with a simple jeans. He had a stern expression that made one feel that he or she was being judged simply by being stared at. His muscles, despite being covered by his simple clothing, were easily viewable and with his present expression, it gave a foreboding sense of pressure.

Physical looks aside, the man held a metal briefcase in one hand and a large and _very_ long and uniquely shaped broadsword. The European man was tall, but his sword was much longer than he was tall, that it couldn't fit within the room that the two were in and was held aloft from the large gaping hole where the window was supposed to be.

Discretely looking to the surroundings – a herculean effort seeing as her own instincts were telling her to keep her eyes on the foe before her – she noticed Saori and Kirino by a sofa, unconscious. Oddly enough however, Kirino's clothing looked a fair bit more disheveled compared to Saori.

Apart from that, the most easily noticeable thing within the room (gaping hole aside), was the red paste that was on the wall adjacent to the door. Said red paste led to...

"Were you the one that did this?"

"What of it?"

"Nothing, I didn't expect the legendary mercenary of the British Isles to resorting on killing innocent people."

Kuroneko replied as she positioned herself between the man and the two unconscious girls.

"So you know of me?"

"It may have been over 10 years ago, but regardless of the time that has passed, holders of Built-type weapons are rather memorable."

Reading the reports that Junpei had managed to gather based on the description that her senpai had given, she had honestly been apprehensive and worried for future encounters once the facts pointed to one person.

"..."

The man stood silent as he kept his eyes trained on her.

"The legendary mercenary; The strongest and unyielding vanguard; The wielder of the Dragon Slaying sword of Saint George – and the one blessed by the Water... for a man of many titles, and one that had been personally knighted by the Queen of Britain, how is it that you have fallen so far... William Orwell."

For the man's part, his eyes had merely narrowed on Kuroneko but his stance hadn't changed and there were no indicative signs that the man was about to move or attack.

Then again, if the stories were true about the man's exploits, Kuroneko wouldn't be able to see any sign until the sword was inches from making impact to her own body.

Unexpectedly, the man released a quiet sigh as he closed his eyes.

"You know not what you speak of."

"Oh? Then I suppose this city wide... _event_ is not of your doing and this kidnapping had not been something you've seen until this very moment? Or what about the blood dripping down your sword, bathed in the blood of an unfortunate civilian?"

As much as possible, Kuroneko hoped that this wouldn't resort into a fight. It wasn't because she was bad at it - the fallen bodies of the terrorists that led up to here could easily attest to that – but simply because the man in front of her was much more better at it.

So the only thing she could do was buy time; The moment she had recognized who was her foe she had already sent a distress call using her phone. Given the state of communications, it would be unlikely that she'd met a response any time soon.

That said, she wasn't the kind to simply buy time.

"..."

"Did I hit the mark?"

It was a rhetorical question, and merely jesting from Kuroneko's part than actual supposition. Her words, or rather, accusations were merely observations based on what she had seen up to this point. And her assumption of an answer was on the basis that silence was as good as a confirmation.

"Perhaps."

Because it was a rhetorical question, Kuroneko felt her eyes widen in surprise at the man's words. She hadn't expected the man to reply, and if it were any other, then she could have expected a rebuttal of some sort that proved the latter had the higher ground. But in the case of the foe before her, she had not hoped for any confirmation of her words.

Another way to look at the reply was that yes, the man believed he held the higher ground that he could say without any heat and without needing to verbally justify himself of his chosen course of action. If anything, the legendary mercenary had been shown to be ruthless, but benevolent – his actions always holding an underlying but altruistic meaning.

"But you are completely wrong over one thing."

The man turned his back towards her, an insulting gesture in a fight, but one that Kuroneko could hardly take advantage of.

"That man by your feet is hardly innocent."

With those parting words, a large explosion of wind passed through the room, threatening to take her off of her feet.

When she could finally get her bearings, the man had disappeared and the floor that the man had been on moments earlier had caved in.

* * *

><p>"Whew... it took me a while, but I finally made it!"<p>

Kirara inwardly cheered as she tried to regain her breath besides the unconscious body of the sniper that had been earlier aiming at her.

Looking around the abandoned floor of the high rise building, everything, from chairs to tables had been moved aside for what she assumed to be for the purpose of making sniping easier from nearly all directions that the building could view from.

Looking over at the rifle that the man held, it seemed to have been a modified Dragunov Sniper Rifle with the barrel looking far more longer and larger than any of the conventional barrels that she had ever seen. Alongside the rifle were a bunch of strewn bullets which indicated that the man had fired more than the bullets that had been fired on her and the two shots from earlier.

Given the amount of people she knew within the city that could withstand the pulse, there was a good chance it would be Kyousuke or Kuroneko being the target.

Before she could think further on the subject, static began to emit from the Handheld Transreceiver situated at the unconscious man's waist.

Procuring it, in the hopes of eavesdropping on a conversation, she was idly surprised that it was directed to her.

"Inquesta? Please pick up if you're there."

Although her name was not Inquesta, it was her classification in Butei. Given that the HT wasn't affirmed to be something that's not compromised, using their classification would be the next best alternative to refer to them.

"S-supervisor?!"

Realizing that she hadn't pressed the button to allow her to be received on the other end, Kirara quickly picked up the HT and affirmed her presence.

"There isn't much time, we aren't able to contact those in the ground level due to the effects of the Pulse. So I want you to take the rifle that the man holds and provide support for Special Ops and ESP at the following coordinates. Do not worry about the man. We have Assault heading in to apprehend all of those taken out by you and Interrogation."

"Wait, my ranking isn't high enough to qualify as a support sniper!"

"We don't have anyone that holds experience in sniping that can reach the area of descent before you can." Despite the static that filled the voice of the supervisor, Kirara could tell that she was agitated.

"Hold on, descent?!"

The single word filled her with dread.

It was an almost mythical word in the people of Butei and it had occurred once 4 years ago, but prior to that, a descent hadn't been seen for almost 50 years.

Despite the rarity of the occurrence, it was regularly taught to all Butei members as to what it entailed.

For Kirara, having been in Butei for 8 years, the stories make it seem like a descent was no different to a calamity – there was simply no way to stop it, but only mitigate the effects of the disaster.

"It is not confirmed at this point but based on the analysis of Support, a _descent_ is almost inevitable. We're mobilizing all the nearby branches to preventing any thing occurring within from getting out, and those further away to deal with the information backlash set to occur once everything is over."

Kirara bit her lip slightly as she shouldered the large rifle, and made her way to the elevator.

"Not to sound pessimistic, but how would we be able to fight off the manifestation caused by the descent when it's practically a calamity on it's own?"

There was a silence before a reply came. It was as if the pause had indicated that some thinking had occurred as to how to phrase the coming words better.

"There isn't much we can do really." Froleytia's words came almost carefree, but it quickly morphed into one that understood the severity of the situation. "We of Busou Tantei had been the vigilante's since the time of old. Despite our lack of numbers, we outdo many of the more well known public forces in sheer strength and talent."

It was words that Kirara knew ever since her entrance to the top secret force of Busou Tantei. The fact that the words were being repeated to her made her feel a bit chastised and embarrassed at her own lack of faith in their cause. Even though Froleytia had every right to scold her, the Japanese Branch supervisor continued her words in a more uplifting tone that made Kirara walk ever faster.

"It is because we know this, that we can't give up in the face of such difficulty. It is because we know this, that we fight in accordance to our own laws that may find itself in bad blood with the public should it be known... but most importantly, we fight not for ourselves, but to protect the ones that have pushed us to this very path."

* * *

><p>The location was a warehouse.<p>

Kyousuke wasn't surprised; if he was, then he really did not deserve his ranking as an S Rank Special Ops. If anything, the location was met with a mundane thought that went along the lines of 'ah, so it's this place again'.

That said, Kyousuke had never been to a warehouse such as this. Perhaps there were similarities in some of the warehouses he's been to, but he doubted that any of the warehouses he's gone to held merchandises for goods that wouldn't look out of place in a shop that catered to Otakus everywhere.

...he had a feeling that if Kuroneko was here, she would be a bit more vindictive to any foe that used this place as their base of operation.

Unsurprisingly, there wasn't anyone nearby the warehouse. Even amongst all of the Butei's who had grown a resistance to the effects of the Pulse, withstanding multiple high powered pulses right next to the epicenter would be too much.

For the unprotected mind, it was something else altogether.

Though Kyousuke noted that there were no opposition, that didn't mean that there were no people in the surrounding area. After all, the warehouse was usually littered with workers and security guards that the time where the least amount of people would be in such an area would be around late midnight, and sometimes not even then.

"Damn... I was too slow."

Kyousuke was truly regretful as he stared at the 'bodies'.

Those who lay on the ground unmoving looked for all and intents purposes similar to those who had collapsed in Akihabara proper. However, the foam that emitted from their slightly opens lips was enough to tell him that despite the fact the body was considered amongst the living, the mind was in a different state entirely.

Pushing further into the warehouse which turned out to be some form of steel storage, it didn't take him long to find the source of the pulse.

Surrounded by a semi-transparent azure like glow, was a spherical object held aloft by a multitude of wires. Within the spherical object was what looked like a stone fragment from afar. Upon a moment of observation, it was clear that it was far from being a normal stone fragment.

Then again, knowing the original purpose of the pulse it was clear that the focus the machine was using had to be far from normal.

There was also a fallen body by the edge of the sphere, but Kyousuke already knew that the unfortunate soul was long gone even if the body had somehow survived up till this point. It was rather obvious given that foam emitted from the man's mouth and his limbs would shake every now and again.

Apart from the spherical object, the surrounding area was bathed, rather heavily, in Mana that it felt like something was smothering his very being, making breathing difficult.

And as someone that could perceive mana and trace it to its source, his senses felt like it was being overloaded. His own constitution and experiences kept him from keeling over, without it he would have probably stopped the moment he reached the warehouse proper.

Taking a step closer, he suddenly found himself quickly placing both feet to the ground as a shockwave, akin to being in the receiving end of a sonic boom, pulsed out of the contraption nearly knocking him out of his feet.

A feminine grunt of exertion came with the passing of the shockwave that made Kyousuke aware there was someone else within the warehouse.

Turning to the side, a location that had been formerly obscured by crates, he saw a girl wearing a blue cap over her shoulder length brown hair with an equally blue long sleeved vest coupled with a short brown skirt. She had thigh high socks, with a color as green as her eyes.

Kyousuke recognized the girl.

"Mari?!"

Nikaido Mari, the strongest member of ESP within the Japanese Branch and holder of the Ancient Element of 'Aurora', she was well known both within and outside of the Japanese Branch. Despite being younger than Kyousuke by around a year, she was considered one of the unmatched prodigies to ever grace the magical field.

Ancient Elements simply refer to rare attributes that have unique capabilities. Elements does not directly imply that the common placements fall under the conventional elements seen in popular media such as fire, water or metal, but it refers to the disposition that a person's 'spirit' acts up in accordance to certain external stimuli.

For a witch such as Mari, her Ancient Element of 'Aurora' gave her the capability of unparalleled 'beginning' and decisive 'end'. In accordance to Roman Mythology, Aurora referred to the goddess that announces the arrival of the sun – or in some interpretations, the end of Luna's power shifting to Sol's power. This meant, that depending on how Mari wished to execute her spells, so long as it fell under the two main symbolism then not even other Ancient Magic users (with the exception of other Aurora users) would be able to match her.

"Slow! You're too damn slow, Kyousuke!"

She screamed out in frustration, her hands held still in front of her with her palms thrust out towards the spherical object. With Kyousuke's own knowledge in the supernatural, it came to him that the azure glow surrounding the object was not caused by the object, but by Mari.

She was suppressing the effects of the pulse. Based on her element, this meant that she was using the symbolism of definitive 'end'. Yet despite the usage of her element, she was still struggling on keeping the barrier afloat.

Mana, in its raw form, held no attribute. Thus, using magic or 'powers' that depended on using elements would be hard pressed to maintain its form as the interference of raw mana clashed with the element of a user. This was perhaps the reason why Mari continued to struggle.

"Uhh... sorry about that."

"Not. Helping!"

Mari was undoubtedly stressed and the exertion of suppressing the field had become visible as sweat dripped from her forehead.

It made him feel like an ass.

"What can I do?"

Kyousuke was used to acting on his own and he was fairly good at reacting to things with little knowledge of what was going on. As much as Junpei assisted in his missions, certain crucial information were either unavailable or could not be transmitted to him during the heat of things. Even in cases where the supernatural was one of the main problems being faced, he had managed to find his way through it.

Though that being the case, the situation had worsened quite considerably ever since everything started out a little less than half an hour ago. Acting recklessly when there was an expert right next to him would be foolhardy and could bring things into a more disastrous level than it was now.

It was for that matter that Mari immediately took command without batting an eyelash at the fact that someone of Special Ops was directly asking for her help in the heat of a mission.

"Do you have any idea how to get that fragment out of that contraption?"

The fragment she was most likely referring to was the stone fragment that seemed to float within the spherical object.

"Apart from brute force? I've got nothing."

As much as he hated to admitted it, he was poorly equipped for a scenario such as this and his own knowledge in the supernatural was sorely lacking for this particular request. Normally, any questions he had could be answered by his support personnel or during the mission briefing. If that failed, then he could simply learn things on the fly by logical deduction. But learning on the fly only worked if it was a fight – this was no fight.

"Figures... you've only dealt with the aftermath of this, not before it." She muttered derisively.

Aftermath?

"Then can you make a suppression barrier, like the one I'm making?" No sooner had the words left her mouth, she gave an irritated sigh. "No, that's not possible either. You don't have an affinity with 'Aurora.'"

"About that," Kyousuke interjected. "I might not be able to take out the fragment, but you can, right?"

"Of course I can! But as good as I am with magic," She replied, pride clear within her voice. "I can't do two detailed oriented things at once!"

"Then I'll do what you're doing now."

Mari turned to him with a doubtful look, which looked rather comical given that she was splitting her focus on stopping the pulse and conversing with him.

"You can use the 'Aurora'?"

Kyousuke shook his head as he sheathed his knife, but took the same position as Mari, adjacent from her position.

"No, but I can 'possess' your barrier and maintain it in your stead."

"Possess?"

"You've read my files, right? That despite everything, I still hold a rank of C in the ESP department."

Mari nodded hesitantly, unsure of what to make of his words.

"It's because of my ability to 'possess'. This ability allows me to take into possession something I can 'touch' and something I have 'understood'."

Kyousuke didn't discuss his ability with others that often. Explaining the general nuances of his ability was something he could do, but anything deeper as to why it worked that way and how exactly it works continues to escape him and those that evaluated him. Those same evaluators had been unable to discern more, though they hypothesized that if his ability was understood, it was possible he could raise his ESP rank from C to A or even S.

In theory, it was possible for Kyousuke to take control of any spell and perhaps electronics through mere touch alone. The only limitation as of the moment was how well Kyousuke knew the object or spell in question.

But as of the moment, such a thing was impossible for Kyousuke. His ability required 'understanding' and 'contact', things like that requires time and set up – something that is often impossible or impractical to grasp in the heat of battle. In terms of ability potential, Kyousuke might rank high – but in terms of battle practicality, it was far from acceptable.

"I can maintain the barrier in your place long enough for you to destroy that device."

Although Kyousuke himself didn't fully understand his ability, he was confident that he could at least do that much.

Despite his confidence and the description of his ability, one that obviously sparked a point of curiosity amongst the 'Aurora' witch but was suppressed given the situation, Mari was still unconvinced.

"My barrier is powered by the 'Aurora', so how will you...?"

"Power it?" He finished for her, shooting her an amused look as she flushed and turned her head away. "Don't worry about that, if I can say I can do something, I can and _will_."

He was the Japanese Branch one and only Special Ops. If he declared that he can do something, then it might as well be fact regardless of how improbable it was; regardless of how _untested_ it was.

He didn't survive until this point doing things that are all within the realm of pure success.

"Fine." Mari relented, given the situation, she didn't have much of a choice. "So how are you going to do this?"

Inching closer to the sphere, his hands trembled lightly at what he was about to do but he clenched down on it with impunity.

"You'll know when to let go."

With those words, Kyousuke's hands made 'contact' with the sphere.

Although the suppressing sphere that prevented the pulse from occurring once more was an ethereal thing, it was easy to discern when he had finally 'touched' it. As one moment he was conscious of the smothering feeling that surrounded one who was neck deep in pure Mana, the next moment he had nearly lost sight of his own existence as a myriad of swirling lights assaulted his eyes and consciousness.

Lights, one that he belatedly realized was formed like an aurora, which flowed through his body in both electrifying heat and cold that sent his body numb from what was happening in the physical realm. It sent his mind into disarray, but he quickly caught himself and forced his own 'light' to mix in with the aurora. If he allowed himself to dwell within the light, there was no telling when he would wake up once again.

It was a tiring effort that he felt himself nearly fade out from time to time, but with a bit more prodding, the lights shifted minutely and he felt his senses extend to the strands of light – as if it suddenly became part of his own consciousness.

No sooner had he felt it, he became physically aware once more.

No longer was he feeling and seeing the lights of the aurora, now, he was consciously aware that the barrier was being held up by his own hands and that an invisible pressure was threatening to shatter his hold on the barrier making it waver.

He forcibly pressed down on the pressure as he released a stressed grunt. The barrier, as if complying, smoothed out.

The visions and feelings that assaulted Kyousuke whenever a pulse was released was a side effect of his own incapability to fully understand and control his own power. Anything that could possibly encompass Kyousuke's body that surpassed a human's natural resistance would give Kyousuke hallucinatory feelings and visions that made it difficult to perceive the true physical world until the feeling has passed.

Despite being ranked C in ESP over three years ago, he hasn't made much progress in the control and development of his own unique ability. He had only learned to 'ignore' the feeling in situations where he was expecting it.

"How did you...?"

For Mari, a successful witch in her own right, what he just did was something that defied the logic of how magic worked. Once magic's altering affects were enacted, there are few ways to stop, negate or control it outside of the caster who had done it. It was even more difficult with spells that used the Ancient Elements as it was rare and there are very few users for it.

With few users, it was often a waste of time to devise a counter for something that one would be unlikely to encounter.

For Kyousuke, he had used none of the known counters and he knew it.

Even though he knew it, he couldn't explain it. He simply didn't know the deeper nuances of his ability.

"Ask later! Take that device out!"

He could probably hold the barrier for several minutes, but it was an unpleasant feeling and the environment made it almost suffocating.

Mari hesitated for a moment longer as she cautiously let go of her position. When the barrier maintained its form, her face shifted to one of determination as a swirl of lights gathered in her outstretched palms.

No sooner had she done so, spears of translucent light materialized around the spherical object and mercilessly stabbed onto its center.

When the pressure had released, Kyousuke's instincts screamed and with his limited knowledge of the barrier he was upholding, he crudely changed the composition of the barrier from one of suppressant to a physical barrier.

It was a good thing he did, the pressure being delivered onto his body increased several folds as he struggled to maintain the barrier from breaking. The contents within the barrier exploded in a bright white flash that would have ruptured their eardrums had he not acted the way he did.

Once the pressure had relented, and that he could feel no more than the slight drain that accompanied maintaining the barrier, Kyousuke focused his attention on Mari.

"Do you sense anything?"

He had let his guard down several times in the day to the point that his effectiveness as an agent had plummeted to barely acceptable levels. It was embarrassing and he was sure that he would receive a reprimand despite not being briefed of the mission before hand.

"...it's hard to get a reading." Mari replied after a moment of thought. "The mana here is too saturated. It's no surprise though seeing as they had to open a ley line just to create as big as a pulse that they did -"

Mari stopped, as if her voice was caught in her throat. Kyousuke had similarly felt the feeling, and his hold tightened on the barrier.

...which proved useless as he only had a second to realize that the barrier had shattered and despite the pain of the backlash, he moved his body to knock Mari to the ground just as _something_ passed where the two had been moments earlier.

"What was that?"

He muttered, as he pushed himself up, with his arms by Mari's sides.

He was peripherally aware that if someone saw the two of them, it would have lead into some sort of misunderstanding, but he didn't really care about that right now.

The same couldn't be said about Mari, though.

"G-get off of me!"

"W-wait, this isn't the situation for it! I'm trying to get a gauge of the current situation, but if you keep moving the opponent would know we're still – gbeh?!"

It looked like he didn't have a choice in the matter.

Nursing his stomach as he rolled to the side, Mari looked cautiously to the center of the clearing.

Her eyes widening, she reached towards her vest and pulled out a canister and threw it to the center of the clearing. A bright flash occurred among the rapidly clearing dust and smoke but whatever Mari expected to happen had not occurred.

"Get up you idiot! We need to get out of here!"

"...yeah, give me a sec."

"This isn't the time to be lying about you idiot!"

_Then you shouldn't have punched me in the first place!_ Was what Kyousuke wanted to retort but settled to suppressing the pain a no doubt magic supplemented punch would have caused. He hadn't exactly seen what Mari had seen, but her voice was urgent enough and he knew that they weren't quite out of the woods just yet.

The plan, or at least what Kyousuke supposed was the plan, was to get out of the immediate perimeter but that was quickly thrown away as another problem made itself known to them.

Not even a second after Kyousuke had gotten up, he was already brandishing his knives to ward two pipes that have been thrown at tremendous speed towards them. For all and intents purposes, the pipes might as well be large rifle bullets with the speed they were thrown. He probably would have failed to act properly if he hadn't caught a shift within the plume of smoke.

Despite having been able to make it time however, Kyousuke's arms shook at the sheer strength required to ward off the two pipes that had nearly impaled Mari and himself.

Kyousuke was honestly confused at what had occurred but given that, like many other occasions, this was a situation where lives were involved, he kept such thoughts to himself. Nevertheless, he was quickly trying to discern who or what could have caused the pipes to be thrown at high speed – barring the supernatural, it was physically impossible for humans to throw pipes that fast.

For whatever reason though, Mari gave off a shaky sigh of what seemed like relief.

"G-good... it doesn't look like a full descent."

Setting aside the ominous word that no Butei didn't know, Kyousuke directed a bit of his attention to Mari.

"What do you mean it isn't a full descent?"

"To put it simply, whatever had descended is not using their signature skill or weapon at the get go, right?" Mari replied, but it was clear she wasn't as sure as she wanted to be on the subject. "That said, there's no telling if it's only a matter of time – so we have to destroy the physical body before actualization occurs!"

Based on Kyousuke's knowledge in the supernatural, actualization, when referring to 'descent', meant the moment that 'soul' becomes imprinted to the 'flesh'. As a descent typically means the appearance of a spiritual entity in the physical plane, then actualization refers to the materialization of a spiritual entity that has reached the physical plane.

"I understand that." Kyousuke muttered. "But what could it be possessing -"

Kyousuke's words died in his throat as the answer came to him both mentally and physically.

Raising his left hand to his head – a timely action that signified the moment between life and death – the sudden and unexpected strength within the impact sent Kyousuke careening head over heels to the group of scattered crates by the side.

Mari couldn't even utter a cry of surprise before an impact that surpassed her reaction rate hit her in her abdomen sending her towards the opposite direction.

In almost a blink of an eye the unknown assailant had sent two of Butei's strongest flying.

But the fight wasn't over.

* * *

><p>"Do you have visual confirmation of the target?"<p>

The words echoed within the HT that Hoshino Kirara had nabbed from the unconscious Sniper a few moments earlier. As Kirara wasn't part of the Butei Sniper division, it would have been easy to snap her focus and miss entirely if the caller wasn't unexpected.

She wasn't firing at the moment, but she felt a pressure akin to one doing a project presentation in the next hour where 50% of one's grade was on the line.

And said project wasn't complete and far from it.

"Y-yes." She stuttered quietly.

The explosion that had occurred at the center of the warehouse she was observing from afar had blown open for reasons unknown. It was an odd occurrence as no fire could be seen, and the ethereal lights that signified high mana concentration had made itself known.

She wasn't that aware of the nuances behind magic, but she had quickly discerned that perhaps a ley line had been opened to fuel the machinery.

Regardless, that wasn't what had Kirara nervous.

No, it was the entity cloaked in a blue shroud that made looking for any physical clue (as to who or what the entity was) was impossible. Although it was clear that some form of hands were used as it seemed to have been holding a now bent pipe due to hitting both Kyousuke and Mari in rapid succession.

"Good." Her supervisor said, before dropping a bombshell. "Fire."

"Wait, what?! Fire? At that thing that just took out Special Ops in a single hit?!" Despite Kirara's panic, she still managed to retain using the code names.

She wasn't a coward by any means, but she knew when to fold it when the time came. She wasn't stubborn and hopeful that a situation that she had perceived to be impossible would suddenly become possible in the heat of things, rather, if she can do something to tilt the odds to her favor then she would – regardless of how underhanded it was.

At this point however, she was in a position that didn't fully utilize her capabilities. Rather, the situation forced her to use capabilities that she wasn't confident in or could be said to be an expert at.

Perhaps in comparison to conventional snipers (that is, snipers outside of Butei) she could be considered good or even considered experienced.

But she knew what it meant to be an expert – and she could definitely say she was _not_.

So her apprehension regarding the command was clearly a given.

"Calm down, Inquesta." Froleytia said, her voice was still as even as before. "Although that idiot, has been doing a poor job with his ability to be prepared – he isn't called Special Ops for no reason."

Almost as if accentuating that fact, a flash of silver was reflected within her scope and the entity that had remained in position after knocking Mari down, was forced to step back as Kyousuke had once again entered the fore. The speed he showcased wasn't as fast as the entity, but despite the situation, he was exchanging blow for blow with the entity as if the speed difference didn't exist.

Nevertheless, it was clear to her that Kyousuke wouldn't last long if he was forced to the defensive.

"So provide cover for that idiot. Tilt the odds to his favor – that's what you're good at, right?"

* * *

><p>Kyousuke was peripherally aware of the injuries that he had incurred upon the first impact.<p>

Using his knife as a means to defend the attack, the sheer power behind it had still managed to make his own knife open a gash by his left cheek. Compared to his other injuries though, it was currently the most visible as his clothing had obscured everything else.

_I'm going to feel this tomorrow._

With that thought, he burst from the crates and engaged the unknown foe.

Kicking up the rust that had gathered onto the floor of the warehouse as dust, he met the foe's bent pipe with his own weapon. Instead of blocking it, he parried it to the side causing a sizable crater upon its impact on the ground. The rust that had been thrown up whirled around him and his foe, as some settled down on him and his foe.

Not giving the opponent time to recover, he brought his other knife to stab at the head of his foe but was deftly evaded. The evasion turned to a short ranged shoulder tackle, but Kyousuke had anticipated the action and had used the hand that had missed to grab hold of the foe's 'shoulder' to vault over the entity so he could avoid the blow altogether.

Despite his evasion, the foe had recovered quickly and had stopped mid step to deliver a scathing kick towards Kyousuke's descending form.

A dull meaty sound echoed within the half open warehouse, but despite the implication of such a sound, Kyousuke turned his fly into a roll – his action was an exemplary effort of one who had fought in difficult battles – but his foe proved its mettle by quickly bursting towards his prone form.

Persistent! Kyousuke thought, as he forcibly turned his roll into a hasty backward jump. His eyes quickly spotted a glimmer of silver from behind and took hold of it. The glimmer of silver turned out to be a chain connected to one of the mechanisms up at the above platform, in this case, he used the chain to swing away from the trajectory of his foe, making the attack miss altogether.

Dust was once again thrown up to the air as one of the old decrepit metal shipping container was deformed due to the missed attack. While that shipping container could have easily been him, Kyousuke merely grimaced as he clutched as his stomach.

The pain wasn't as horrible as what the sound implied earlier, but it was still there.

"Looks like I need to hurry this up..."

Sensing a shift at the cloud of rust, Kyousuke ducked from a coming blow before he could even perceive the opponent swinging. His left knife twirled unto a reverse grip before he used the butt end of the knife to knock the next swing to the side making it narrowly miss his left leg.

Before, his opponent fought with the ferocity of a rabid dog, but slowly, Kyousuke could notice a fighting style beginning to form. He was aware somewhere deep down in his gut, that he couldn't let this fight last any longer.

The foe, instead of swinging the pipe (a new pipe given that it was no longer deformed) with a single hand, was now swinging it with a stance that somewhat resembled how a large sword – perhaps a bastard sword – would be held. The force behind the blows were staggeringly high that it was already a given Kyousuke wouldn't be entering in a contest of strength with his opponent anytime soon.

Warding off the oncoming blow, as he used the momentum to pivot in place and deliver an attack with his other knife which was deftly evaded, Kyousuke held his place regardless of the danger it held.

Kyousuke was aware that the opponent before him was far faster than he could normally be, and without the proper equipment, he was severely limited to what he can do to subdue or eliminate the foe.

But limited was not the same as having nothing.

While it's true that the foe in front of him had become more difficult to handle, it did not mean he was completely out of options.

For instance, the opponent in front of him was becoming more 'human' in movement rather than pointless savagery and in doing so, the wild aura that cloaked his foe had become more controlled. With his foe becoming more and more human-like in action and shape, it made predicting attack patterns and movements all the more easier.

As the opponent became more human-like in action, it would be logical to deduce that it would also be possible to induce a human-like response.

So he threw more dust to the opponent's 'eyes'.

Kyousuke's opponent, cloaked in a blue aura that obscured nearly every other features from sight, flinched at the action, faltering for the slightest of moments.

If the dust had been normal dust, it would have most likely been shrugged away by the aura.

But it wasn't.

Amongst the dust-like particles that littered the area were metallic particles that came as residue from the other metals. Sometimes, some of the dust would be larger than others and in rare instances, these metal particles would be as sharp as glass.

So it was no surprise that the opponent had flinched no matter how minutely.

It was an opportunity that Kyousuke would capitalize in.

His right foot stepped forward and slammed down on his opponent's 'foot'. It wasn't done to cause pain, but just for a moment -

A sharp and crisp sound of a rifle bullet shooting through the air resounded.

If he had heard this sound several minutes earlier, Kyousuke would have been on guard – but now, he knew that the sniper was on his side.

The bullet had not been aimed at him, as the impact was clearly felt by his foe as his opponent lurched forward and gave a startled cry.

Taking advantage of his opponent's disarray, Kyousuke executed his 'one-off' technique.

His left hand, raised as high as he could over the bended form of his foe, came mercilessly down.

In terms of looking at the chop objectively, it wasn't anything special. It was a simple chop and from an outsider's perspective it might even portray Kyousuke as a executioner of some sort – but that was the only thing simple about it.

The speed that his chop descended was far from any speed a human would normally be able to do. After all, no mere chop would be able to create a miniature sonic boom as it descended.

The end result however, still ended up in the realm of 'not normal' as despite the sheer strength and speed that was used to deliver the blow, Kyousuke's foe merely met the concrete with a sickening crack rather than having the 'head' lopped off.

But that was all Kyousuke had to do.

A mere second later, several incandescent lights materialized above the fallen body and stabbed at the prone form.

"...still alive, huh?"

A moment of observing the fallen form, Kyousuke's expression turned to a grimace as he walked over to the struggling form of his foe.

The foe's body was covered with dust and rust, blood should also be visible due to the spears formed by light pinning down the body but the thick veil of mana made perceiving anything below it to be a difficult process. One was more likely to have the light imprinted in their eyes than perceiving anything behind it, it went more so for Kyousuke who perceived mana in a more unique sense in comparison to others.

Bringing up his other knife and holding it with both hands, he prepared himself once again.

The blade descended.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes:<strong>

Thus ends the First Akihabara visit.

As I mentioned a few chapters back, this arc is to set up future arcs. So if there's anything that isn't completely covered here and merely touched up upon, then it will be clarified (if it hasn't been already) in future chapters. Some of the things that may have raised questions in past chapters should be completely answered at this point – but to those who are unable to see between the lines, I suppose those things that hadn't been explicitly stated would be mentioned at some later point.

Well, I might not have detailed that 'one-off' move that Kyousuke did, but I _modeled_ it after Kinji's 'Ouka'. That's the only thing I'll say for now.

The next chapter would cover the aftermath and the implications of the mass panic caused by this arc, so things would only become more difficulty for our protagonist.

In any case, the chapter is twice as long as the 'usual' length. This would hopefully be sufficient for my near 4 months absence although I could have probably uploaded this early August, but revising and proofreading had to wait after my first thesis defense (and the crap that followed). I'll try to get the next chapter out within the next two months, but no promises.


	13. Minor Problems

**Disclaimer: I do not own Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii wake ga nai or its characters. Nor do I own any of the characters that come from other franchises that appears or will appear in this written work such as Persona 3 or Heavy Object.**

**Edited (4/24/15): Some minor edits based on GVNChaos' input and after reading it through once again...**

* * *

><p>"<em>A precursor."<em>

The static filled radio commission echoed within the almost empty, and dimly lit room.

"Is that extrapolation or a fact, Mr. Curtis?" A man with graying hair asked, his hand pushing up his glasses by the bridge.

"_An extrapolation based on current readings gathered from around the globe. Despite that, the most obvious sign would have to be the recent 'descent'."_

"..."

The man that was conversing with the man called Curtis did not respond, and perhaps due to the silence that ensued, Curtis continued unimpeded.

"_Regardless of what it means this group has exacted their plans, even with the use of that destroyed artifact, and linking with a ley line – as far removed as the area is from any nearby leyline - in short notice, it's entirely plausible that what we see here is the precursor."_

Despite the confidence of Curtis' voice, the man did not look convinced and his arms was folded before him, his own expression deep in contemplation.

"It's too early for it to be classified as the precursor." The man finally said. "While the preparations are set, initiating the protocols would be foolhardy without more information."

_"Information you say... I'm not one to question your commands on the matter, but what sort of information are we looking for beyond a near descent, let alone in modern times?"_

"This hasn't been the first time that a descent has occurred in the last decade, Mr. Curtis."

"_Yes, the incident is still fresh and I'm sure some of those in the Intelligence Group had a near heart attack upon hearing the word 'descent' from the unofficial lines."_

"Yet despite that, and it's full actualization in comparison to last week's affair, it was _not_ the precursor."

"_That was the case then, and while the thought did enter my mind, myself and several others, we agreed that the incident was not the precursor simply because not all the conditions have been met."_

"And now you're asserting that the partial descent is the precursor?" There was a doubtful undertone upon the man's tone.

"_No, rather, the small time gap between the two Descents are too close to one another to brush it off as misfortune or mere coincidence. Not to mention that other factors are cropping up that only alludes to what has been seen."_

There was a lengthy silence before the other speaker finally spoke. It was with the tone of a command, rather than a suggestion.

"Continue observing the situation. And make no mention of the precursor signs to the others, let alone those who do not have clearance of Rank S or higher."

"_...as much as it displeases me to say this, but are you perhaps hiding something from us, General Superintendent? You are not normally this evasive when answering my questions."_

"Rather than evasive, I'd like to think I am simply being cautious, Mr. Curtis."

Whether it was due to the other line understanding what was being said, or simply accepting it, a simple and toneless affirmative was given.

"Moving on to other matters, you mentioned an incident oddly similar to what has occurred in Akihabara a week ago?"

"_Yes. In varying other countries, there have been kidnapping of both high profile and common people with no connection with one another. What made this stand out and made it similar to the Akihabara incident, was that not too long after the forceful kidnapping, the targets were found relatively unharmed at abandoned locations."_

"When and where did these incidents take place?"

"_According to the reports we managed to get from the local authorities and our own investigation the rough gap between each kidnapping would be around 20 to 30 days. Those kidnapped would often be found a day or two after the disappearance. As for the location, it's been happening in various places around the globe with a total of 12 recorded and confirmed cases."_

Hearing the report, the General Superintendent frowned as he reached towards a stack of folders and documents by the corner of his desk. Within those same folders were profiles of people with varying ethnicity and background.

"As for the kidnappers?"

"_There were sightings to be sure, but those that kidnapped were often of the same ethnicity of the area where the kidnapping took place. The few captured have no idea why the targets are chosen and merely handed them over to a middleman of sorts. And are own Interrogation Buteis have nothing to add to what's already known."_

The message received was disheartening, yet the General Superintendent simply nodded to the words being relayed as if it was something that was expected. Given his line of work, it may as well be.

"Anything else?"

"_...nothing concrete as of the moment. At the very least, it would take a week before things we are investigating would be confirmed at any rate."_

"Continue investigating the disappearances. It may be unrelated, but something of this scale is suspicious enough as is." The General Superintendent said, before cutting the line.

With the radio-line cut, the dim lighting of the room brightened, and the General Superintendent gave a soft sigh. He reached towards his desk and took a small sip from his mug before setting it down.

"Speculation it may be, but I suppose the answer is already in front of us."

It was hard to tell what sort of expression the General Superintendent held as he stared at the depths of his mug. Apart from stoic, perhaps it called have been called melancholy?

* * *

><p>"Kousaka-san."<p>

It had been a week since the end of the incident.

From then, Kousaka Kyousuke could freely admit that he had partook less in his habit of sleeping in, and while he could casually curse those who had made his nights filled with work, he did not.

It was a fruitless endeavor.

As the highest ranking Butei operative within the site of the incident, Kyousuke had been busy giving report after report to the higher ups that he often wondered during the hour that it took to get from work to home, why had he ever agreed in becoming a Black Ops member. Aside from the pay, which he rarely ever used and was never the reason as to why he joined Busou Tantei, he couldn't quite recall why he ever joined.

Then he was reminded that his sister was targeted and the incident, then it became moot point.

The incident had caused quite an uproar with the media, and those outside of the country had become worried about similar unexplained bouts of fainting spells in which terrorists would take advantage to wreak havoc. It had the local officials on edge and Kyousuke's own father had been seldom home as of late.

Kirino had been rather unaffected by the incident, since Kyousuke had made Kirino tell their parents that they were at some other place other than Akihabara so that they wouldn't be questioned and Kirino had accepted the request only asking about the two that they had been with before the incident began.

He reassured her that everyone whom she knew was alright, even calling Kuroneko to throw some insults her way using his phone.

Kyousuke liked to think it was Kuroneko's own way of placating his sister...

Saori on the other hand was rather well, and Kuroneko had been placed as her escort due to being a target of the incident. It hadn't been official before, but with how things turned out and the nature of _why_ she was targeted, it was a logical conclusion.

As for the incident itself, Busou Tantei managed to _leak_ information that it was some sort of experimental drug that was used by the terrorists to cause the mass fainting spell that Akihabara witnessed. Busou Tantei would have liked it if terrorists weren't in it at all, but given how everything turned out, it was best to run with the assumption and roll with it.

"Kousaka-san."

Given how everything turned out, Akihabara had been close to the public for a whole week – though it was said to start being open to the public in a few days time.

In terms of casualties however, the number of those that had died were relatively few. Most of the deaths however, were caused by the vehicular related crashes, and while tragic, it was far less than what people had expected seeing as a large population suddenly became vulnerable at that moment.

Vulnerable.

That was one of the reasons why, despite a whole week since the incident, the news still seemed so fresh and new.

The unknown nature of the drug (that the public was made to believe) had made everyone cower for their own safety. It wasn't odd to find civilians wearing flu masks in the past few days, in fact, some of the students in his own school had done to doing the same.

It was disconcerting really, especially since Kyousuke knew of the truth. While this hadn't been the first time that this had happened (knowing something the public didn't), this had been the first time that such a lie had wide reaching, and visible effects to his own environment.

That odd disconcerting feeling was one of the other reasons that kept him going despite the nature of his nightly work catching up to him. If by having sleepless nights is what it took to make sure those who instigated the incident were permanently out of the way, then he'd force his way through.

Still, it was starting to have its toll on him.

"Kousaka Kyousuke."

He was pretty sure he was starting to hear the voice of his teacher, which shouldn't be the case since he was at...

Now that he thought about it, today was a Tuesday and with how bright it was, it was probably midday. What did he normally do at this time?

_**BAM!**_

"Gah!"

"Kousaka Kyousuke, please step outside." Came the irate voice of Kyousuke's teacher, a hardbound textbook by his hands.

At any rate, sleepless nights have been the norm for the past week but with the weekend soon approaching (at least, he'd like to think it was soon), Kyousuke hoped that would soon change.

* * *

><p>"Are you alright, Kyo-chan?" Manami asked worriedly by Kyousuke's side.<p>

"Yeah, you really seem out of it, Kyousuke." Kouhei commented taking a bite from a sandwich he brought from the cafeteria. "More so than usual."

It was lunch time at the moment, and after procuring some food from the cafeteria, Kyousuke, Kouhei and Manami opted to have lunch at the classroom.

"Why do you say so?"

"That's the fifth time in three days that a teacher had sent you out the classroom for not paying attention."

Actually, it was the seventh.

"Yes, Kyou-chan. I know you value your sleep a lot, but can you avoid indulging in it? You haven't been turning in your homework for the past few days either!"

Kyousuke, for his part, could not come up with an excuse for his recent bout of sleepiness in class and lack of productiveness in school. He had, at one point, considered making an excuse of having a part-time job, but it wasn't like he went to the job in a daily basis nor would it be acceptable for him when his grades are supposedly so low.

While his parents would approve of Kyousuke on taking a part-time job, looking at this grades, there would still be a lot of doubt regarding his own capability of managing school and work at the same time.

So the main excuse he had during these situations was that he had overindulged with his hobby of sleeping. Despite this excuse however, it wasn't hard to miss his poor physical state as of late that seemed to correlate with a lack of sleep.

That simply didn't make any sense for someone who slept a lot.

Manami had taken his excuse in face value, but Kyousuke was fairly certain that she was only believing it for his sake. The same couldn't be said for Kouhei or the teachers. Their vocal statements regarding his current state in both physical and mental faculties, while well meaning, only irritated him to no end.

It was a wonder why some of those same teachers gave him physical labor for detention.

It was a good thing that none of this got to his parents though. Something that he had the supervisor to thank about.

"Sorry, I've been kept up late for the last few nights. Kanami had something I could help with, and seeing that I apparently had the knowledge to help her out, she enlisted my help. She says that with my help, her work would be done by the end of this week."

"Kanami... you mean that foreigner?" Kouhei interjected.

Kanami was a form of handle name made by Froleytia to keep her name hidden. Perhaps it was due to her obsession of all things Japanese, but she had chosen a rather unfitting name to hide her own. She could have at least chosen a European name to avoid having people think that her name was false...

Although seeing as Manami, one of the first few people to hear of her handle name had accepted it without outright dismissing it, it might have unintentionally bolstered Froleytia's misconception on its acceptability.

Sometimes, he wondered if it was a good idea to have a Japanese obsessed supervisor for the Japanese branch...

"Yeah, the very same one."

Kyousuke nodded.

Froleytia had met Kouhei and Manami at least thrice in the last two years. Kyousuke wasn't certain why, but had never questioned it as Froleytia had been very unassuming the first time that Kyousuke had met her.

Unassuming, in the sense that she looked like your average foreigner business woman.

"So she's back here recruiting employees again, eh? You sure that she isn't secretly training you to become her assistant or something?"

"I doubt it. She's plenty capable herself, I'm just helping her out seeing as she's busy with her overseas recruits as of the moment and with the recent mess in Akihabara, there's been a lot of worry coming in from the higher ups seeing as she had planned to go the very same place to visit a friend."

...and to get a few merchandise for some closet otakus outside of the Japanese Busou Tantei branch, Kyousuke thought quietly to himself.

"Must be rough, at any rate, why don't you use that excuse whenever the teachers are giving you a rough time? I'm sure they would understand."

"...I'd rather not, and that would be giving Kanami more trouble if word got out to her that I'm failing my classes because of her. Besides, it's just a week."

Or so he hoped.

"You're too nice, Kyousuke." Kouhei remarked idly.

"That's just how he is, Akagi-san."

* * *

><p>From there, the conversation had moved entirely from Kyousuke's school trouble to another vague rumor within the school. Despite Kyousuke's far from ideal state, he placed his own two cents and conversed just like any other high school student.<p>

It was a bit after Kyousuke's after school detention that Kyousuke met Akagi by the school gate.

"Yo."

Raising an eyebrow at the casual greeting, Kyousuke nonetheless walked alongside his one normal male friend. Which in hindsight, was rather depressing.

"So what's this about?" Kyousuke started, with half lidded eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't feign ignorance with me, I told Manami to go home early, so she should have told you I'd be in detention."

"Kyousuke, everyone in our class knows you have detention."

"...did you specifically stay behind so I can cave your face in, because my fist is just about ready!"

"Wait! There's a reason! There's a reason I stayed behind!"

"Damn... and here I was hoping you'd be a good friend and let our fists do the talking."

"Is this a shounen manga?!"

"Better than those yaoi Visual Novels you play with."

"That wasn't mine! How many times do I have to tell you that it was my sister!"

"As many times as it takes for those girls, that saw me hanging out with you when you bought that Visual Novel, to realize that we are not a couple."

"...never then."

Giving a light laugh, Kyousuke gave a look to his friend.

Akagi Kouhei, was a young man of similar height and build. While he couldn't be called muscular or lean, he wasn't fat nor was he without muscle. He was an average looking guy, similar to himself when wearing their school clothing.

He had his own fashion sense, but now that Kyousuke paid attention to the details, he realized that Kouhei often wore things that Kuroneko had fashioned or had been inspired from.

"So what's the problem?" Kyousuke reiterated.

Kouhei looked hesitant for a moment before giving a sigh.

"Can't you make this easy for a guy?" He whined half-heartedly.

"Then you should have asked Minami, not me." Kyousuke retorted.

Kyousuke could do subtle – just that with recent events and that he wasn't in a mission, meant that he could forgo that entirely without any consequence.

"Fine, fine." Kouhei relented. "I was hoping you'd give me advice on what to wear for a party one of my cousin's friend is holding."

"What?"

"Don't give me that look! I mean, you're friends with _that_ Kuroneko, right? And your sister is a model too, so I'm sure you'd have an impeccable fashion sense!"

"I'm not sure what you've seen Kouhei, but do I ever go out in public with this so called fashion sense you speak of?"

"No, but you can't fool me! While you're the kind of guy that would rather choose the first clothing your hand grasps in the closet than put any real thought into it, when it comes down to it you've been able to provide top notch advices to people who ask for your input! And besides, even Manami-san was the one that told me you give great fashion advice!"

While that may be true, it did not mean that Kyousuke was someone who had an eye for fashion. Sure, he probably had more sense than most, but his own sense only applied to females. In regards to his own sense of fashion applied to himself?

Kuroneko handled that.

"So I'm not taking a half-assed answer like that in face value!"

Now that Kyousuke took a moment to look around – a difficult task, seeing as Kouhei had gotten to one of his moods – there were a fair bit of students looking their way. Most of which were females.

A normal high school student would have felt that this was a fortunate event, yet Kyousuke could feel something gnawing at him that this was decidedly wrong.

Sure, the blushing and whispering gaggle of high school girls as they talked and looked their way when they thought he wasn't looking added to the illusion that they had a crush on one or both of them.

Yet the fact remained that he did nothing of sorts to attract such attention.

"...and more importantly – hey! Kyousuke, are you listening to me?!"

"Yeah, yeah. I heard you Akagi." Kyousuke grumbled, disregarding the staring. "You just want a clothing combination for that party, right? I'll send you the specifications later, I'll even ask help from Kuroneko if you're not convinced I'm not half-assing it."

"Really?!" Kouhei's face lit up, and Kyousuke could see in his peripherals that the girls were even paying more attention now. "You're not kidding, right?"

"I don't even know why you care so much, but yeah, I'm serious. And scoot a little further, you're too close..."

Kyousuke also wanted to add 'stop looking like a puppy that was offered a treat', but he simply wanted to get out of this situation.

It wasn't dangerous, but he kept getting the feeling -

"Hey, isn't that your sister over there?" Kyousuke prompted.

"Huh?"

Sure enough, Kouhei's sister was sprawled on the side walk with a rather dreamy look in her face.

* * *

><p>"5PM... if I recall correctly, Kirino should be done with her modeling right about now." Kyousuke muttered to himself as he entered the building in which the ground below it was where Busou Tantei's Japanese Branch office was located.<p>

Depending when the mood would take him, Kyousuke would sometimes oversee Kirino's modeling from a fair distance. Given his rank within the organization, it would feel a tad bit overkill to have him as Kirino's full time body guard. Not to mention that if any organization knew of the fact that _he_ was the bodyguard, then that would just invite people to attack Kirino simply because they thought that she was important.

They wouldn't be wrong in assuming she was important, but not in the way that they probably thought.

It was perhaps a small fortune that Kirino as of late had close to no resemblance to him physically.

Now however, Kyousuke couldn't be too sure. Whether it was a coincidence or not, she had been targeted during the incident in Akihabara.

Kyousuke wasn't sure how well connected or what kind of organization attacked Akihabara, and it was due to that unknown variable that he couldn't rest easy.

Yet despite his own wish to be the one protecting his sister, he understood why the job had to be relegated to someone else.

To put it simply, his power would be used more productively elsewhere.

"Should I call this misfortune? Or is it some sort of obscure burden...?"

Heaving a quiet sigh as he descended floors, Kyousuke barely batted an eyelash when a sudden flash by the peripheral of his vision became his only warning as a Chinese dao sped through his right on a one way road to decapitating his neck -

_**PAH!**_

Or would have been the case, if Kyousuke hadn't raised his right arm to forcefully slam the flat side of the coming blade to overshoot his head.

It was an ambush, and so close to the base of the Busou Tantei branch...

Were the ambushers naïve or arrogant?

Kyousuke's thoughts however were pulled to a halt as a distinct sucking sound was heard in he opposite direction of the oncoming blade. With the hair behind his neck standing on edge, he threw reservation to the wind as rolled to the side. No sooner had he done so, a bright flash surged out from where he had been moments ago.

_Beam weaponry? Or is it a supernatural ability?_

Kyousuke had an ability himself, but it was only useful when it came to things of supernatural origin. It was useless towards anything that was completely scientific without hints of the occult. Due to the extremely dim lighting of the floor he was in and the sheer lack of materials to act as cover all round, his position made him a sitting duck especially so when he hadn't even determined who the attackers were.

The bright flash of light had made the dim room look much darker, and it only made perceiving his attackers all the more difficult.

So for the moment, his eyes were more of a hindrance than any help.

That wasn't much of a problem.

He took a step back to get ready, but that had been a mistake.

"Adhesive?!"

By his left foot, Kyousuke felt resistance that shouldn't have been there. Trying to change the position of his foot minutely proved that the adhesive was there and holding.

Without even seeing the oncoming foe, Kyousuke knew he didn't have much time now that they knew he fell for the trap.

"Agh! Screw it!"

The oncoming blur was met with a solid kick and the descending blade was once again parried to the side. Without letting up, Kyousuke delivered another kick by purposely removing his shoe and when that was evaded, he pivoted in place to use his other foot to send a rising heel strike towards the opponent's chin.

Kyousuke had not meant the attack to hit though, as that too was evaded; it was an action that allowed him to use his rising heel strike as a means to roll forward to avoid the bullets fired by the second attacker.

To Kyousuke's eyes, the opponent were mere blurs and the fact that they wore dark clothing only made it harder to get any details as to _who_ were attacking him. It seemed that the pair was working in tandem with one another and taking advantage of possible openings that the attacking pair would leave to end the fight. If Kyousuke hadn't been used to these kinds of fights, then the battle would have ended prematurely after the first try.

"So dark clothing to take advantage of the dim light, huh?" Kyousuke muttered idly engaging the Chinese dao user without a blade of his own and simply taking advantage of the reach of his own legs to stop a decapitating blow prematurely and to weaken the sword wielding arm of the opponent. If he had to guess, his opponents "And I'm guessing the occasional flashes mixed in with gun shots are a means to prevent me from regaining my eyesight. A typical strategy..."

Almost by the book really, and it was somewhat surreal to see such strategies actually being used against him. That thought prickled at his mind, but he kept it down as the tell tale signs of a retaliation had been spotted by the edge of his vision.

With little hesitation on his part, he reached into his bag and quickly procured his typical choice of firearm.

A rifle wouldn't do, seeing as it would be hard to hide, but a simple Five Seven was both light enough to carry and had enough ammunition that a third cartridge would simply be dead weight.

In terms of close range combat however, there was simply no chance that he could miss.

Perhaps sensing this, the second of the pair, one that had merely engaged in ranged combat unlike the one wielding the Chinese Dao, burst into the scene.

Kyousuke's eyes narrowed at the stance his opponent entered. Though his eyes were still trying to adapt to the darkness, even he could notice the change in form from his opponent's movement.

The glint of twin silvers only strengthened his feeling and he made his preparation by taking out one of his favored knives on his free hand.

A gun was typically used as a ranged weapon, it could be held in one hand or the other hand could be used to support the hand holding the trigger to prevent the aim from veering off course due to the recoil. For that matter, while decreasing the range between the target would increase accuracy, it removed the one advantage that guns had over simple bladed weapons.

_**Bang! Bang!**_

A cacophony of gunshots echoed, as the two handguns of his foe blazed forward, each threatening to pump him filled with holes, but his right hand, the one holding his gun, parried each strike with barely any effort while attempting to strike with his own knife.

With the opponent's first offensive blocked so perfectly, Kyousuke decided to test the waters by mounting his own.

His left hand lashed out, the blade aimed to pierce his foe's lungs, while his right hand attempted to aim at his foe's wrist.

Kyousuke wasn't at all surprised that his attack were fended off.

Thus the two engaged in combat participated in what could only be called 'martial arts with guns'. Whilst one of the pair held twin handguns, the other held a knife and gun who somehow used the recoil to easily twist his body or to move his hand faster to ruin his opponent's grasp of his pace.

Despite how evenly matched the combatants looked, it was clear who held the pace of the battle.

The other pair, holding a Chinese Dao, surged into the battle, taking advantage of Kyousuke's prone back. Yet without even confirming where the opponent was, Kyousuke simply tilted his body and met the coming blade with his shorter one. Instead of directly meeting the blade however, Kyousuke's speed allowed his own blade to meet the flat end of the blade, parrying it to the side.

It was then the battle shifted.

Kyousuke let loose a few more bullets, each that were evaded deftly but had given him enough time to ward off the other attacker and in doing so, he quickly planted a kick towards Chinese Dao wielder's solar plexus, sending the foe flying.

And it was due to that, to disengage and to gather their wits, the telltale sounds of a grenade being dropped onto the floor entered his ears.

Without even taking a glance at it, he leaped at the opposite direction.

_**BOOM!**_

"Gah! What the heck?! Are you trying to call all of Busou Tantei here?"

Yet despite his words, Kyousuke felt something odd with the situation. Even if they were still several floors before the main entrance, any disturbance within the building be it in the ground floor or at the very top would have been detected by the one watching over the main entrance of the branch office. If not, the defense personnel would have no doubt detected the disturbance long before a gun shot could have been fired.

For Kyousuke this meant only one of two things.

The first, would be that the branch office was taken over – something Kyousuke had discarded right of the bat and the second...

"Tch... I see what this is now."

Standing up with a disgruntled expression, Kyousuke's earlier cautiousness was thrown out of the window.

"Damn, I must have been putting up a rather disappointing show haven't I? The Aru=kata you've showed, should have tipped me off if nothing else." Kyousuke said out loud, knowing that the pair attacking him would not reply. "Then let's take this up a notch!"

Far from holding back, yet far from going all out, the next minute and a half could only be considered a one-sided beat down.

Perhaps it was due to a loss of one of Kyousuke's shoes, that despite the blades taken out, most of the injuries sustained by his attackers were caused by his kicks.

It was petty, but Kyousuke had a lot of stress to release.

* * *

><p>"Kyo-senpai! You look a lot better than usual! Or is that worse than usual? It's hard to tell when you have a scowl on your face."<p>

"Shove it, Junpei." Kyousuke replied. "Do you have a pair of shoes I can borrow? And you could have at least given me a warning."

"I wish I could but all communications towards you were sealed off for the duration of the exercise." Junpei gave a slight shrug, uncaring if his words were against normal conduct to what had occurred earlier. "And besides, I had full confidence you could come out unscathed! ...or at least mostly unscathed, seeing as you just lost one of your shoes."

"Yeah, about that. What was the point of that faux ambush? If I treated them as a serious threat, they wouldn't be just going away with those bruises."

"But the fact is, that you _didn't_. Although I'm not privy to the exact details, but seeing how irritated our supervisor was this morning, I'm guessing she managed to change the original ambush location to somewhere where you would quickly figure out that you weren't under a serious situation."

Now that Kyousuke thought about it, if the ambush had taken place in a park, or some other open area, he would have done everything in his power to quickly shut down the problem before it spread out. It was only due to the inherent location of the ambush that allowed him to calmly determine what was likely going on. Even if he was wrong however, with Froleytia here, the chances of a complete destruction of the Busou Tantei Japanese branch was close to zero.

"Still, I think you should prepare yourself. Your performance, while expected from someone of your rank and position, is still far too slow to our supervisor's standards. Seeing as she was the one that trained and recruited you."

"Ugh... don't remind me. So about that exercise, who were the ones that engaged me? I don't recognize them from anyone in the Japanese branch. Although based on the weapon that one held, they're probably from outside of Japan?"

Junpei opened his mouth to reply, but was kept from actually answering when the door to the office opened. Seeing as the offices were often locked and only opened based on some sort of biometric signal, the number of people that could open the door would be narrowed to less than a handful of people.

So it was to no surprise that Kyousuke recognized the voice of who answered his question.

"The Chinese branch to be exact, senpai."

"Hey, Kuroneko!" Junpei greeted.

Giving a slight nod of acknowledgment to Junpei, Kuroneko continued.

"The exercise was merely to check if you senpai still has what it takes to keep the rank of 'Special Ops'."

"There have been doubts?" Kyousuke asked with a frown.

It wasn't unexpected, Kyousuke admitted. Given the disastrous result of the Akihabara incident, and the panic it gave to the populace both in and out of Japan, some of the higher ups are feeling a tad bit more stressed and would like to pin the blame on _someone_.

Normally, that someone would be the instigator, but seeing as even if the instigators were captured, it doesn't remove the fact that the incident is already known and the official authorities are now on high alert.

It made covert operation more difficult and the sending of less experienced Busou Tantei members without a senor member less likely due to possible screw ups that might worsen the situation.

Well, it wasn't likely that a screw up would occur if a member was given a mission of appropriate rank but seeing as how missions can suddenly shoot up in rank due to unforeseen variables, this gave the higher ups a needless amount of fuel for their paranoia.

"Initially, yes." Kuroneko admitted a slight irritated expression crossing her face before it was masked away by her usual impassive expression. "But once the information that you had averted a Descent had become known and that the enemies that we fought off used such knowledge, the main branch had absolved us of any fault and had commended us for keeping the situation from getting any bigger."

"So are there still someone in the higher ups having doubts?"

"...despite the words of the General Superintendent, it seems some branches are not convinced and had opted to test your mettle with the ambush today."

"It's the reason that our supervisor was in a foul mood all day." Junpei added. "So you might want to avoid seeing her for the time being."

"Do I look like someone that would carelessly seek her out? Hearing her in a bad mood is already enough to convince me that I best leave the building while I still can."

It was a rhetorical statement, and he honestly didn't expect anyone to reply.

"Is that so? Then perhaps it is _my_ lucky day that I found you before you did just that."

Kyousuke could only silently curse as he found himself pulled out of Junpei's office by the irate supervisor.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes:<strong>

I'm not dead! And this story isn't either. Although my motivation to write had died for a bit...

Apart from writer's block that cropped up after restarting this chapter several times, my old laptop had finally kicked the bucket taking all of my written work with it. I have back up for most of my written works, but it's several months old and obviously not up to date.

At any rate, since I'm in the last legs of my college life, I'll be pretty busy for the next few months. Although _hopefully_ I can insert a chapter here and there before my graduation.

Oh, and if anyone is interested, I placed a link to my wordpress account in my profile. The wordpress account contains an assortment of stories that I'm not quite satisfied with on putting in this site. Mainly either due to the fact that it's original or it still needs a bit of details being fixed here and there.

By the way, I don't exactly know the name of the position that is the highest in Busou Tantei (from Hidan no Aria), so I just made it General Superintendent. If anyone else has a valid suggestion, then do tell me.


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